Maximilian learns the art of war
by skycomv2
Summary: Maximilian takes a different strategy to turn the tides of war after the second naggiar campaign. Some Selvaria X Maximilian, and other cannon couples.
1. A change of Plans

Maximilian learns the art of war

Authors note: this story starts after the second naggiar campaign, with Maximilian taking a different strategy to turn the tides of war. This was mainly done because I was personally annoyed with his later strategy/personality, he is supposedly ruthless and brilliant, but he never seems to properly account for the appearance of an enemy valkyria, or learns from his mistakes. Some Selvaria X Maximilian, and other cannon couples.

World Construction: a list of assumptions since information about the war is somewhat vague.

Gallium population + 1 million for a total population of 1,400,000 this was done so that the percent of people in the army is 5.6% instead of 20% which is higher than even North Korea's military ratio

Army: 80,000

Militia: 100,000

Royal guard (marines): 10,000

Imperial: 50,000

a number constructed by the military ranks the triumviri has, Selvaria Bles is a Brigadier general and should command 4,000-11,000 troops, Radi Jaegor and Berthold Gregor are Major Generals who should each command 10,000-20,000 troops.

Selvaria Bles: 10,000

Radi Jaegor and Berthold Gregor: 20,000 each

While the game usually implies that the imperial forces outnumber the Gallians, this can be achieved tactically without outnumbering the opponents strategically like the Germans did to the soviets. Also the superiority of the imperial forces in a quality aspect was also heavily implied which combined with the complete incompetence of the gallium high command, could easily lead to the easy early imperial victories.

Story changes

Artificial valkryia technology is not going to exist. The games last level, while fun, would completely destroy any sensibility afterwards, since the empire has the ability to make artificial lances, why not simply remake another valkof weapon…

Therefore, while the reason for invading Gallian is still to attain the valkof, the assumption will be that it is a human sized weapon possibly to be used by Selvaria. The Marmota will not be designed with the valkof's use in mind

The Marmota is going to be a naval battleship, think USS iowa class

On Maximilian: while his actions are vastly different from the game I am trying to keep his personality traits intact which are to me: emo technocrat, with a background in political knifing, whose main goal in life is world domination partly to assuage his own psyche and partly to fix it.

On Selvaria: I picture her as the ultimate soldier or perhaps the perfect samurai. Skilled commander, fearless, cares about the troops, leads from the front and loyal to the death. A horrendous waste about the last part, and ultimately in vain to boot since the gallium army was never a threat, Marmota could have crushed them like it crushed the royal guard.

Disclaimer: I do not own Valkryia Chronicles or Code Geass whose cast has been imported for members of the imperial family, therefore the Britannia family is now the East Europa Imperial alliance's ruling family.

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Sun Tzu: "Defense is for times of insufficiency, attack is for times of surplus."

Ch1 a change of plans

POV: Maximilian

Location: citadel at Ghirlandaio

Time: a day after the second battle of Naggier

Defeated. With the battle of Naggier over and Selvaria beaten, all of my triumviri and myself have been handed defeat, again and again. I have been humiliated, despite my advantages in troop quality, and technological prowess. Beaten by a militia--- bread makers, teachers, doctors, playing at war have defeated my imperial army.

With a long sigh, I now understand that I can no longer continue on the path of pitting strength against strength. My reign will not begin on a glorious note of conquest.

Still a return to my roots is only mostly bad, at the very least I can return to using singular pronouns when referring to myself, the only person who would have cared would be Gregor and he is dead now, a fate I most certainly do not wish to emulate.

I ease back in my chair and close my eyes trying to focus my mind on the ramifications of the report on the battle of Naggier. It is not easy, emotions swarm, fear, anger, shock, disbelief, and despair, battling each other for supremacy and taking up valuable and necessary brain power from task at hand. That task being what the hell I am supposed to do now?!

From the report Selvaria was flat out overpowered by the Gallian Valkyria, the imperial forces that tried to rescue her was mostly decimated, until the Gallian Valkyria fainted. The fact that there is a limit the Gallian Valkyria's power is kind of depressing in light of the fact that she managed to blunt the pincer of 10 thousand imperial troops that Selvaria had setup. The only reason that my army was not completely destroyed was the excellent fighting retreat that was again planned by Selvaria, and successful despite her being unconscious during the retreat. Still my army is frankly not large enough to absorb the casualties needed to exhaust the Gallian Valkyria and then defeat the reminder of the Gallian military.

A Gallian Valkyria, an enemy Valkyria… my emotions are still trying to get around that fact. Oh logically it makes sense, a bit too much sense, Gallia is the home of the house of Randgriz, the scion of the Valkyrur. If any country can summon a Valkyria to save them, it is Gallia. And of course the higher number of Valkyrur in the past means that the blood would run thicker and thus truer in a Gallian girl than an imperial woman, at least that's what a racial bigot like Gregor would promote. A pity he died so early on, I would have liked to have seen the look on his face as Selvaria turns Valkyria and proclaims my right to rule Europa. He'll likely have heart attack that a Valkyria, a goddess, would proclaim me, a bastard prince, to rule instead of those of purer blood in my family.

Valkyria… I think I have gotten too caught up in past glories and future ambitions involving them. Having Selvaria is not a guarantee of victory through divine mandate, or Valkyrur power. At least my old paranoia made me ensure Selvaria's Valkyria identity was only known to troops that are trustworthy. The last thing I need would be for an official imperial investigation into her and myself, ignoring the various black marks that would dreg up about me, my family would try to claim her for themselves, and I simply won't allow that. No one will take Selvaria from me.

Snapping myself from the guttural direction my thoughts had taken, I refocus on the task at hand. My original grand strategy had the following outline:

1.) Conquer Gallia using a well led imperial army speared by Valkyria might

2.) Get Cordelia to recognize Selvaria as kin and part of the Randgriz/Valkyria line

3.) Marry into the Randgriz/Valkyria line via Selvaria

4.) Demand the empire to recognize me as the legitimate and rightful ruler because of my Valkyria connections and the power of Valkof

5.) Conquer the Altantic Federation using Valkyria's with Valkof might

6.) Develop Alternate sources of energy and save Ragnite for medical purposes

I frown after counting the number of times I used the word Valkyria in that plan. There is a clear overreliance on that aspect, so with newfound information I start a revision.

What is the grand strategic objective? Gain the power and status afforded by the Valkyria.

What is required to fulfill it? Prolonged study of Valkyria sites, engagement with the house of Randgriz

How to accomplish it? Conventional conquest? No I have been trying that and failing.

What other methods can I use to gain control of a country? Economic undermining, cultural subversion, and political manipulation.

I pause and run one hand through my hair, considering all the information that my spies have gathered. The spying was another hold over from my old paranoid days, and another thing to be thankful for. My efforts were half hearted, being caught up in my becoming near divinity, but the results were surprisingly revealing nonetheless, something to be blamed on the fact that Gallia is falling apart from the weight of its bloated rulers.

Cordelia De Randgriz at the age of 16 is being controlled like a puppet by her Prime Minister Maurits von Borg. Her parents seemed to be the naïve caring type that really has no business running a secure nation let alone one in as dangerous a position has Gallia. I wonder if I am biased thanks to my imperial upbringing but 16 is a fine age to start ruling a country. Plus with her Valkyria blood, her physical abilities should be augmented significantly, making her that much harder to assassinate. From newsreels she seems utterly normal, even mechanical in her movements, which leads me to believe that her blood has not been activated yet, which ultimately means that she is not being shot at enough, I wonder if I will have to fix that…

I hypothesize what my other noticeable family members would do in her situation.

Schneizel: he would simply make Borg his puppet, and possibly deal with the nobility by having them complete for the "honor" of personally attending to him, while simultaneously eroding their real world power.

Lelouch: it's a toss up between being a puppet and complaining about the world not changing, while gambling and sleeping in school, or doing something utterly flamboyant to win the hearts and minds of the people and rule them completely.

Cornelia – Euphemia - Nunnally trinity: Cornelia would kill Borg in a duel, then play bad cop against Euphemia and Nunnally's good cop rulership.

Clovis: probably start mass purges which will tear the country apart in civil war as royalty and nobility clash.

What would have I done at age 16? What was I doing? I cringe as I realize I was hating the world much like Lelouch, however unlike him I lacked a social life and threw myself into studying hoping to achieve through technical superiority what Lelouch had in tactical supremacy. Like Clovis I have never won a chess game against Lelouch, though it heartens me that Lelouch has never won against Scheizel, just showing that there is always someone better. Though the question of wether Scheizel can defeat our father is something of a state secret.

Still in comparsion with Cordelia, I would have arranged an accident for Borg probably some form of mechanical failure, then appointed some easily impressible old fool with an ironclad reputation, like Gregor.

So for political manipulation, it may be easier to establish, or rather continue a puppet government with the same puppet but a different regent. I could keep Cordelia as a figurehead and simply replace Borg with myself. This would require less troops to maintain the peace while allowing me to change pro federation trade laws to pro imperial trade laws, and act as cover while research the technology of the Valkyria.

Cultural subversion is kind of impossible right now since Selvaria lost to a Gallian Valkyria, initially I planned for rumors of a Valkyria leading my forces to demoralize the enemy by claiming divine mandate via Valkyria Conquest. Ideally this would be a replay of the original Valkyria Conquest in the minds of the people, except instead of genocidal Darcsens we have apathetic nobility killing the people.

Economic undermining would be a decent strategy if Borg and his group were not so intent on pursuing it themselves. The Gallian Economy was doing well under Randgriz rule, but after Borg took over the nobility started a privatization scheme and quickly sold off assets and outsourced production until the current economy is little more than Ragnite mining and selling. Not a particularly bad situation if the empire managed to gain control of the assets, but unfortunately the Gallian dislike of the empire meant that the federation ended up with ownership, the federation's deeper pockets helped too.

I recall a conversation I had with Schneizel about the Gallian situation and the situation of many other federation republics. I argued for prevention via armed intervention, figuring a country with its economy intact was more useful than one whose economy has been transformed to serve a specific purpose. Schneizel argued that the people of those countries would be more grateful under imperial rule after they tasted the jackboot of worker flexibility projects. I suppose this is one debate we will have an answer for soon, since Schneizel is the leader of the south imperial forces that recently took those southern republics mentioned in Tarus news. He'll have to deal with republics that have been integrated with federation rule for a long time, while I have to deal with one in the process of being devoured.

So putting it all together, Gallia's economic collapse means that they will be relying on foreign sources to maintain the nobility's privileges, this will allow me to infiltrate Gallia by offering my sources to the Gallian nobility through a 3rd party contractor of course. Not as hard as it seems, Gallia already uses a dummy corporation that is wholly owned by Zabot Industries, my personal industrial conglomerate or Zaibatsu, for Gallia's economic health monitoring, or more accurately Gallia's nobility's rate of plunder. Which is how I know about the economic collapse, its ironic really that my war which should have accelerated the impact of the economic collapse actually postponed it has employment rates are high since everyone is in the military fighting my army.

Once my infiltration has penetrated thoroughly enough I will have the ability to sneak an entire armored division, 10,000 troops and 300 tanks, into Randgriz and capture Cordelia gi Randgriz, and with some luck decimate the nobility. If I don't catch all the nobles then there will be resistance movement with some federation backing. A minor nuisance if I can keep the common people happy with their figurehead ruler and jobs from my Zabot Industries.

All I need then is time, time to expand my networks in Gallia. My Citadel at Ghirlandaio is strong against a direct attack by the Gallian army, I will need to fortify it against an unconventional attack by the Gallian militia. I recall the Naggier report again, the army sent the militia ahead to clear the way with their bodies, to be expected given the leader is still Georg Von Damon. Damon's noble birth apparently means that despite his endless stream of failures he retains his position and status, in the empire he would been shot after Vasel Bridge fell into imperial hands for allowing the enemy to come so close to the capitol. So it seems most likely that to keep army casualties low and preserve the illusion of his own competence he will again send the militia against the citadel first. That means that I can wear out militia directly and deal with the army conventionally later. And the best way to do that would be to turning the area in front of the Citadel into a giant kill zone, with trenches, minefields, and constant artillery fire, would tire out the militia so they will be unable to do real damage to the Citadel.

Ahhh I smile to myself thinking, trench warfare, a variant of siege warfare, the ultimate in war by the numbers, in this I believe that I can outdo anyone else on Europa. Courage, maneuver, speed, and surprise all drowned out by the constant stream of artillery, the endless minefields, the enduring machine gun fire, or the eternal paranoia. The main importance is the layout of the fortifications, the position of the overlapping fields of fire, the number of artillery pieces aimed at an area, the density and composition of the minefields.

Then it hit me, mines, that's how I can deal with the Gallian Valkyria, I'll get a number of Marmota 1000kg projectiles, bury them in the ground, attach wires to the detonator and blast her into the sky she pasts over them. The Valkyrian shield may protect against any of man's arrows, but what about his bear traps?

I stand up and head down to my throne and strategic center, I have a lot of preparations to do before the Gallian military shows up on my doorstep.

History Quiz: what real world ruler actually used the strategy outlined by Schneizel? For those to0 lazy to scroll up, Schneizel supposedly would give the nobility the honor of attending to him while concurrently eroding the nobilities real power. The reward is pride and a self inflicted pat on the back. Please leave your answer in a review

If that wasn't blatant enough then:

Maximilian: "Heed my words and know victory. Loose your words, readers! Review the story!"

Also please indict whether you would prefer Isara to be alive or not, it will be some chapters before I get around to squad 7's point of view


	2. The lights of the past

Ch2

World changes:

Air tech: the empire and the federation are both two decades ahead of Gallia in airplane technology, meaning while Gallia is in WW1 tech, the superpowers are in the interwar period and will be in the WW2 period in the sequel.

Economy: while both the empire and the federation are capitalist systems, I picture the federation as Anglo-Saxon capitalism, free market capitalism, or corporate capitalism, while the empire is more Japanese capitalism, state capitalism, or "family" capitalism, by family I mean long standing industrial dynasties based off the Krupp family of Germany.

Disclaimer: I do not own Valkyria Chronicles or Code Geass

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Sun Tzu: the Way means inducing people to have the same aim as the leadership, so that they will share death and share life, without fear of danger.

POV: Selvaria

Location: just outside the citadel at Ghirlandaio

Time: 2 weeks after the second battle of Naggier

I lie back on top of my personal black painted medium tank, staring at some distant birds watching their carefree play. Suppressing my envy I recall Maximilian words on the subject 6 years ago "birds are not freer than people, they merely have a different set of options. They still have the same objectives as people, the need to breathe, the need to eat and drink, and the need for shelter. Whereas birds fly around to achieve these objectives, humans build things that attain those needs in one place"

I let a small smile grace my features as I remember his overly technical and endlessly logical explanation. I must have been pouting at his explanation, because soon after he took me skydiving to show me what being a bird feels like. I recall later retorting that birds do not spend all their time freefalling. Maximilian countered by taking me wing suit gliding once I had made my 200th successful jump. Now grinning like a fool, I wondered at the things that man would do to prove a point.

Pondering Maximilian's desires and current situation further quickly sobered me. The outlook is grim, after losing the battle of Naggiar to the Gallian Valkyria I awoke 2 days later fully healed in an imperial apc (armored personal carrier), with the Gallian army in close pursuit. The Gallian army was too eager to exploit the imperial retreat, their assaults were staggered and their men overconfident and thus careless. I was able to punish their advances severely with my Ruhm in a continuous series of ambushes and withdrawals.

Somewhat desperate to gain something from this debacle I start wondering over the particular reason why my Ruhm was so much more effective than sniper rifles and heavy machine guns. Sniper rifles are extremely dangerous in the hands of skilled personal; I have read repeated reports of snipers on the southern front gaining over 100 kills. The main problem is finding the talented individuals and then giving them enough training to truly be effective. Maximilian's army snipers are trained to take body shots at long ranges, the only problem is that the energy and penetration of the rounds is lessened enough by the air drag that whatever polymer based body armor the Gallians are using is enough to stop the round. Heavy machine guns on the other hand while processing the necessary power, are too bulky and heavy with their water cooled barrels to be withdrawn quickly enough in the face of a stronger renewed Gallian assault, after the initial ambush.

My Ruhm on the other hand seemed capable of long range suppression fire and even more capable of shredding unprepared Gallian vanguards. The long range, rapid fire, and portability does seem like an unstoppable combination together, perhaps future imperial squads will be based around the light machine gun, instead of the rifle. But first the empire needs to get the guns and the Ruhm was considered too expensive for deployment to all imperial forces. I frown at that, the empire which normally lavishes its troops found something too expense for the common soldier. I'll have to ask Maximilian if he can get Zabot industries to make a cheaper design.

I cringe at that, my upcoming conversation with Maximilian, I have to report my failure as a Valkryia to this Maximilian, the one I created when I first turned Valkyria. I sigh as I recall my life in the dry tone the Valkyria project handlers once used:

Subject: Selvaria Bles

Life story:

Up to age 8 lived in happy normal imperial family living in Heerlen

At age 8 indentified as Valkyria and abducted into the imperial Valkryia research project headed by Bartley Asprius a confidant of both the emperor Charles de Europa and his prime minister V.V

Age 8-14 Subject spent time alternating between learning how to fight and being experimented on by handlers….

At age 14 Bartley Asprius is killed in a train accident, Maximilian oversees project shutdown, officially because of lack of results and the funds need for the first Europan War. All Valkryia subjects are found homes. Except for Selvaria Bles, as the extensive testing resulted in hair and eye color changes and vastly increased physical strength, this combined with harsh conditioning rendered her a possible threat to imperial society. Maximilian ruled to personally oversee subject's case and deal with any violent outbursts.

I mentally relax once I had gotten past that portion of my life and recall the early days with Maximilian. My previous training had left me incapable of thinking like a normal human being, I would constantly await orders and never voice my feelings. Maximilian dragged me out of that rut by giving me lots of reading material and then asking me about my thoughts and feelings on the subjects during mealtimes.

Understandably most of Maximilian's reading topics were on things that he knew well enough to discourse on; but still those topics ran the gamut of military, politics, economies, industry, agriculture, and philosophy namely the rights and responsibilities of rulers and the ruled. It was during these lessons that my sentiments about Maximilian as my knight in shining armor developed into love and devotion.

At age 18 I joined the imperial army in Maximilian's personal bodyguard division as a Lieutenant, mainly to boaster Maximilian's reputation, and to defuse rumors of my spooning off him. Rising in the ranks through war gaming and technical evaluations was easy after Maximilian's tutoring and my own surprising skill.

At age 20 was when I forced my Valkryia abilities to surface, and Maximilian changed to his current less paranoid, more serious, and aloof persona. My resolution to become a Valkyria for him came after an imperial family outing to the Atlantic Federation city of Ypern. I remember it so clearly, and my resolve has not changed even with the distancing my relationship with Maximilian.

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The trip was supposedly the brainchild of the emperor, designed to curb the rebellious tendencies of teenagers by emphasizing the superiority of the imperial system to the Federation one. The target audience was princess's Euphemia, and Nunnally, and prince's Lelouch and Clovis. The chauffeurs were princes Schneizel, and Maximilian who had all been to the Atlantic Federation before. Attending as bodyguards were myself, princess Cornelia to watch Euphemia, Cornelia's knight Guilford, Nunnally's knight Jeremiah Gottwald, and Schneizel's attendant Kanon Maldini.

The trip started off normally enough, we were treated as visiting dignitaries, the rulers were only mildly condescending, and the servants all smiles, and perhaps most importantly as Maximilian said "the food wasn't poisoned" though since he was eating pre-packed food as always, he at least would have survived. The other older members who had been to Federation before were also reluctantly eating, though the food itself was excellent. We spent a week being pampered, and shown to all the so called achievements of the Federation, buildings that either aped older structures in the empire, or "modern" soulless monoliths. These blocks of a building had everyone arguing over whether the building was more deficient in aesthetics, Clovis, Lelouch, Nunnally, Euphemia, Jeremiah, and Guilford or utility, Maximilian, Schneizel, Cornelia, Kanon, and myself.

Finally Schneizel hatched a plot to distract our handlers, and Maximilian led our party into the poorer sections of town, after forcing everyone into wearing full plate under cloaks despite the heat, and sternly reminding the younger members of the importance of secrecy, it seemed aimed especially at Lelouch. I had previously thought that I had seen the worst humanity had to offer in the Valkyria project labs, I was so wrong, the slums were a maze of one story buildings all in various states of disrepair. Clovis took one look and ran back into the city, the rest of us press forward grimly, with Maximilian explaining how the Federation policies led to the create of such a hellish wasteland. We wondered around for hours, a vast variety of eyes staring at us as we passed through looking like a stern religious progression in our cloaks. The eyes were filled alternately with fear, listlessness, anger, despair, and so very rarely hope and happiness.

We eventually ran into a fetid stream, Maximilian explained in a deadpan voice how lack of water infrastructure, means that this river is used for everything black water, grey water, and fresh water. To illustrate his idea he pointed out a man soiling the water just upstream of a women trying to get clean, and another women drinking water from the river. Lelouch lost his stomach at this point, emptying it into the river, but sadly making no real difference in the levels of filth. Maximilian later told me that he and Schneizel did the same thing on their first trip into the Federation.

As the sun started setting, we started back towards our hotel, the direction was simple, walk towards the skyscrapers. There was an incident with Euphemia getting lost and Cornelia causing a stampede when she offered a 1,000 imperial's as a reward for finding her, pocket change for a princess, more than what a man earns in a decade in the slums. Our escape was only possible thanks to the Federation police who broke up the crowds with a ruthless efficiency and technological expertise comparable to imperial riot police. After we got back to our hotel we found Euphemia waiting there with a slum guide Suzaku Kururugi, thanks to the riot she had gotten there hours before us.

Our group split up, the younger members: Clovis, Lelouch, Nunnally, Euphemia, Suzaku, and Jeremiah to watch them went to one room presumable to sleep, while the older members: myself, Maximilian, Schneizel, Cornelia, Kanon, and Guilford went to a lounge to talk.

As I looked around at these pillars of imperial power I thought and asked "what can we do?"

Schneizel at first calmly responded "there is nothing we can do, these people chosen a different way of life from us" perhaps because the horror was not as fresh for him, fortunately I was saved from committing _leze majesty_ by Cornelia.

Cornelia exclaimed "that's horseshit, we can conquer the Federation, execute those apathetic rulers, and show the people true prosperity under real leadership" which prompted myself and Guilford to exclaim our agreement in embarrassing unison.

Maximilian in the same dead pan voice he used the entire day responded while staring out the window at the slums "don't expect the Federation to lose so easily, do you know what the true horror is, of what you saw down there?" at this he turned and swept his glaze over all of us, mildly unnerving us with his cold stare. "this result was not caused by naiveté, but planned economies, and the second we invade those people will be put to work fighting against us, we'll end up slaughtering those we mean to save"

At this point I spoke up "surely the people would rise up to help us, or the very least have too much malnutrition to fight?"

Maximilian shook his head and responded " the Federation propaganda is too through, too controlling, the poor will be told they will have a future by going to war, they would be told that victory is assured and quick with imperial provinces rushing to embrace Federation liberators. As the war drags on people will continue to go for the promise of food and the fear of us, Kanon can explain more"

Kanon somewhat surprised at being brought into the conversation replied nonetheless with admirable efficiency "the Federation media outlets are appallingly good at public diplomacy, their name for propaganda. They offer a variety of experts seemingly unaffiliated with each other, who then proceed to engage each other in an arms race of slander against the empire. Someone who merely accuses the empire of being a primitive backwater with an anachronistic political system and stupid sheep for people, will then be labeled as an empire lover and blasted by more fanatical writers who under the guise of patriotism precede to label the empires people as racially inferior and incapable of establishing democracy for themselves and must be taught under Federation patronage" pausing a minute for us to digest the information, Kanon then continued "the Federation media also uses us as a kind of twisted mirror, they take everything about the empire and makes it into a worse version of Federation. Imperial poor are more abused than Federation poor because democratic safeguards aren't there, imperial rich are mobsters who stole their wealth while Federation rich earned every penny…."

Maximilian finished for him "and imperial occupation will mean the slow painful extermination of everyone and everything you hold dear" he finishes with a sneer.

Schneizel broke the silence with " the Federation gives itself children's nightmares about the empire, and so turns itself into a rapid dog in order to protect itself from its own nightmarish creation" he finishes solemnly.

With a nervous edge I ask "still can't the people logically conclude that their position in this world can't really get any worse and thus hope for any type of change?"

Maximilian responded sadly that "that type of cold logic can only be achieved with distance, safety, knowledge, and comfort. And it takes an even colder person to follow through on the actions required by that logic. The Federation knows this and hence keeps its people in line though thoughtless desperation in everyday living."

After a long silence Cornelia spoke up "then what can we do?"

At this both Schneizel and Maximilian responded at the same time with "we survive" after looking at each other they continued, still in sync "we prosper". After a moment of staring at each other Maximilian cocked his head in Schneizel direction, indicating he should explain his view first, perhaps out of deference to his older brother.

Schneizel spoke in that endless patient tone of his "the empire and the federation are two sides of the same coin, that coin being the industrial revolution. The Empire's long history, as industrial-military dynasties that unified through marriages, are in direct comparison and competition with the more dynamic but shortsighted corporate conglomerate ruled by committees. Thus for humanities' future the system that ultimately prospers more must be successful, and the empire should achieve a worthwhile victory through economic, not military victory". Schneizel then nodded to Maximilian to share his thoughts.

Maximilian did, and with more vigor than I had seen in him for the past 24 hours "the Federation relies upon desperation and fear as its main people motivator, which can be used to produce goods in massive quantity. The empire then should respond with obsession and devotion to motivate our workers, high pay and incentives to improve products, then we will produce quality products. Federation's great production and low pay is its own enemy. The supply side becomes stuffed while the demand staggers, this results in wasteful strategies such as making disposable items out of previously reusable ones. If the Federation economy runs on people constantly buying disposable products, then the empire economy should plan on making products that can be handed down through generations. Such longevity means that eventually everyone in the empire will have one, and product design should proceed with that market accordingly. While the Federation chokes on its own garbage and wastes its time buying and dumping products, imperial citizens will be able spend more time with family and friends sharing ideas on new products to make everyone's lives better."

At this point Schneizel intoned in a mocking voice "technical details" and before I could respond Maximilian replied in an equally mocking tone "philosophical theories" with such ease that I was sure that they had done this before. After that we all went back to our respected rooms thinking that we will be back to the empire soon and redouble our efforts.

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A surprise then, the next morning when I finally managed to drag myself downstairs, my slow wakefulness was previously "solved" by Valkyria handlers throwing ice water at my face, the imperial party was huddled around a spectacle of some sort. As I came closer I found out the spectacle was Maximilian who was trying to dislodge his sisters Euphemia and Nunnally who despite her wheelchair was doing an admirable job of holding Maximilian's right arm, while his left was held by Euphemia.

When Maximilian spotted me, he cried out in a desperate tone mixed with relief that I had never heard he utter before "Selvaria, quick help get them off me without hurting them."

After blinking for a few seconds to ensure that this was not some bizarre dream, I stepped forward and was quickly stopped by Cornelia's sword. Grasping my the hilt of my own sword, another gift from Maximilian, and groggy enough to consider the possibility that this was a bizarre dream where I had to duel Cornelia again to save Maximilian, from his sisters… I had dueled Cornelia before at the imperial academy, despite the differences in our rank and social status, I was one of the few females that signed up for the ritual dueling class. But my day time fantasies of saving Maximilian usually involves Federation gunmen who conveniently always miss, and Maximilian's clothing being in a tattered damaged stage….

At this point Euphemia shouted out with remarkable clarity despite being waved around my Maximilian's arm "we're not letting go until you promise to help these people!" at this Maximilian's glaze went to the unengaged imperial family members. As it pinned Schneizel, he calmly stated "I have already agreed to handle the diplomatic backlash from the Federation, you merely need to provide the physical transportation"

At this Maximilian stilled and narrowed his glaze on Schneizel uttering "what are you planning?" to which Schneizel calmly replied "what are you hiding, my younger brother?".

Maximilian then looked at each of his sisters and stated "let go of me and I will explain what can and cannot be done." Apparently I wasn't the only female that his quiet teacher tone could manipulate, as his sisters slowly released him. Instead of the tactically superior choice of withdrawing in great haste, i.e running away with your tail tucked between your legs, Maximilian chose to face the confrontation head on.

Maximilian began with that sage like tone that I so enjoyed at our mealtime reviews "the federation and the empire have different transportation methods, our empire relies on railroads while the federation relies on highways, we don't have the means to transport the civilians by land. While distance to the imperial border is walk able, that area is still under heavy guard by both imperial and federation forces, not to mention the left over minefields."

At this point Lelouch butted in with his characteristic arrogance and superiority "if we cannot take them by land, then we should take them by air, get the knights of the Valkryia to do something useful instead of air shows." To which Maximilian mockingly replied with "and exactly how many people do you think you can carry out of here, using aircraft? Gather every single plane in the empire and I doubt you'll get more than a thousand people out of this hellhole."

Lelouch angrily retorted "a thousand more people than you will save by sitting around splitting out excuses like all the other adults." Maximilian countered with "can you really save them, or are you simply moving them from one poverty ridden existence to another one in the empire, you who has no company backing him, no land to store them on?"

At this Schneizel smoothly cut in "why don't we have a friendly competition, as our father and our empire encourages? See who can save more people in a month's time?" Maximilian questioned "still where will they go? My Zabot is good at training people but can't handle such a large influx of people, your Uranus is too elitist to accept low skilled workers, the emperor's current propaganda track discourages immigration."

Schneizel responded with a hint of unease "while I am unsure exactly what sort of numbers you are talking about when I have seen reports about Zabot training ten thousand workers yearly, we can move them into the new lands governed by Cornelia"

At this Cornelia managed a shuttered "what?!" before the glazes of her sisters locked onto her with a distributing intensity. Guilford being attentive as ever rose to his lady's defense with "as newly intergraded lands they are more vulnerable to disruptions and more eager to revolt against our leadership"

Schneizel smiled, that small slight smile and spoke "empires are fundamentally heterogeneous, the mixing of peoples and ideals is one of our greatest strengths over the federation which prefers separate ethic groupings."

Before Cornelia or Guilford could continue to object, Maximilian added "ah I see, its brilliant by mixing people you are diluting their purist ideologies or forcing them to commit ethnic cleansing which allows our empire to come in like the heroes to enforce peace and stability. Either way the necessary troop levels decease as either their will to fight or their focus of targets diminishes."

And at that point the challenge begins, the next day and every day after Lelouch lands an airplane and drags around 50 civilians off to the empire, Suzaku's aging father boards one of the planes, but Suzaku himself remains, apparently the families are trying to get the old and infirmed to safety while believing the young could survive in the federation. Two weeks pass, some five thousand people are flown to the empire, while suprising and a public coup for the possibilities of air travel, the federation remains uncaring as the ones being removed are incapable of working anyway. Maximilian spends his time alternating between preparing identification for the new citizens and discussing the future with Cornelia, Euphemia, and Nunnally. I had heard these talks before but sat in with them often simply to enjoy the sound of his voice.

Then Maximilian's answer to the problem of movement arrives. Ten massive cargo ships arrive and after unloading their wares revealed their secondary function as transport ships. Half a million people loaded onto the boats, this time any one brave enough to try and better their lives is welcome aboard, and Suzaku is among them.

After watching an exuberant Euphemia depart from a reluctant Maximilian, I join him on the railing of the bow of the ship to express my own congratulations. But after getting closer to him I see that he is truly troubled and not merely tired. I slide next to him and ask in the ritual method that he taught me "what's bothering you?"

He turns his head slowly and grimly responds "my actions and the world at large". I wait for him to explain, knowing that he will, if only because he talks to no one else. "For moving half a million people I have revealed the capabilities of Zabot's naval building facilities". He pauses waiting for something, I reply "surely a worthwhile accomplishment, you outdid both Lelouch and Schneizel expectations!" He closes his eyes and shakes his head "half a million people, the empire has 350 million people and the federation has 400 million, my efforts have not affected a single percent of Europa". He continues in an increasingly self mocking tone "this plan cannot be repeated, the federation will more closely monitor their ports. Lelouch succeeded in firing the imaginations of the empire with his air transport, and Scheizel has gotten me to reveal Zabot's encroachment into shipping which will surely cause an inquirly as Zabot is already one of the largest rail owners and operators."

Trying to grasp his world view that would lead him to such fatalistic conclusions I ask "why did you do it then? You could have forfeited once you realized what Schneizel plan was" to this he replied "people like me who plot and scheme in the dark depths of the earth do so because we think that we can accomplish some grand world changing event at the end of that long path. However should something disrupt our journey we will be remembered as murderers or worse, forgotten completely, our sacrifices in vain. I ordered these ships here because I wanted to see if I still could do something for the people or if I had become too lost in the darkness of politics to care. In short I was acting out much like Lelouch does, but with more cards to play and more hands to lose"

Shaking his head, he gets off the railing and begins walking to his quarters he remarks "look at the depths I have sunken to talking like Schneizel does, philosophizing."

Fighting down panic I call out to him "no matter happens in the future you are my hero!", catching myself I continued "and the hero to all the people on the boats, you have our undying loyalty!"

There was a slight pause in his stride, as he pondered my proclamation, then a slight inclination of his head in my direction, before he resumed his journey to his room.

I realized then, that he was truly a visionary, a man who thought it normal to attempt to save the world, and limited only by his lack of power. In that case I would give him the power he needed, I would finally utilize my Valkyria blood, for him, for the world that he would create.

When I returned to my room I took out a dagger, saying mine would be mistake as everything I have was given to me by Maximilian, and plunged it into my gut. The theory goes that Valkyrian blood can only be awakened by a near fatal injury, a radical technique that the Valkyria project was about to pursue but was shut down before they could get a chance too.

The change was fairly quick, about an hour, and the pain was tolerable because it was localized, the training at the Valkyria project would leave my entire body in agony but without the near fatal tissue damage needed to trigger the Valkyrian transformation.

When I revealed my new abilities to Maximilian, it was like watching a glacier of despair melt, as the realization that his dreams could become a reality. He threw himself into a fury of planning to gain more usage out of my Valkyrian blood, we knew we needed a lance and a shield, unfortunately the ones in the imperial museums were unusable and possibly fakes. Which then left Gallia as best source for all things Valkyrian.

Soon Gregor Showed up, and Maximilian began rapidly distancing himself from everyone. Gregor was an esteemed member of the imperial nobility and was quite strict on what he saw as proper behavior of royalty towards everything. Maximilian hinted that Gregor was here to watch him after the family trip.

Maximilian even started calling me child again, much like he did back when we first met. Possibly to persuade Gregor that my claims about the Valkyria were true, and that I was not simply sleeping my way to power.

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Returning to reality I realize that my tank has been stopped, since the engine is no longer glowing blue, I am inferring that it has been stopped for some time, I tap the drivers compartment and ask "why did you not inform me about the fact that we have arrived, I must report to Maximilian ASAP." To which the old soldier replied "ma'am with all due respect you needed the rest, and after all the hard skirmishing that you've done, you deserve it. Plus all that time you've brought us allowed the rest of the army to step up some potent defenses, take a look." And he pointed to a hilltop with short metal cylinder on top.

It took a second for the image to translate, it was a P.I.E, short for Portable Industrial Entrenchment, a name I bugged Maximilian into renaming it once I first saw the plans for the weapon 4 years ago. A metal structure with a diameter of 10 meter, 2 meters tall, wall thickness 150mm making it immune to Gallian's tank and lancer fire, ceiling thickness 100mm and thus immune to gallian artillery and lancer fire. The armament is 7 122mm/43 cannons a knock off of the Mustela cannon used in Jaeger's Lupus tank, co-axial 20mm another knock off of Uranus 20mm guns. With a hundred rounds for each main gun and thousands of rounds for each co-axial, the pie was designed to fulfill a Hedgehog defense strategy, to continue fighting on any front even after the main battle lines are breached by Blitzkrieg. The total pie mass is 200 tonnes (metric tons), and for transport purposes is divided up into 8 sections each weighting 25 tonnes which I call slices, the slices are carried on modified heavy tanks, deployment takes about 2 hours to get the slices off the tanks and put them into the pie. The only problem is that pie's are a sitting duck for the Gallian's Valkyria's beam attacks.

With that troublesome thought in mind I make my way down towards Maximilian's command room, nervous about bringing him more bad tidings but too stubborn to let the situation stay as it is.

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AN: this chapter is mostly character development and world building for Selvaria, I am trying to give her a more concrete reason to follow Maximilian with such fervor. While I hope to update every other week, my school is started again so updates maybe sporadic and of highly variable length.

Ypern's slums: based off any third world country slums, I recall reading in the glossary that the federation's infrastructure was poorer than the empire's before the EW1, but currently outdoes it in national power, whatever that means… so I have interpreted that as a really rapid industrialization, that creates massive wealth gaps, that the empire's more "traditional" economy lacks.

History Quiz: which ancient empire moved conquered peoples around to facilitate control?

I'll answer all these quizzes at the end of the story or when someone posts the answer in a review.

Please review, this was my first time doing a dialogue scene between a medium amount of characters and I would like to know how it came out.


	3. The shadows of the past

Ch3

Short Authors note, long version at the bottom, there will be a geography change making the Ghirlandaio pass the only way from the empire into Gallia and vice versa, the Bruhl pass is instead secured by mountains. Mainly done for storyline purposes, secondly done for logical thought, as why would Gallia go to the effort of constructing one giant military fortress at one pass and leave the other completely empty? It would be a bit like the French making the Maginot line facing Belgium and trying to stop the German panzers with their famed wine yards.

Disclaimer: I do not own Valkryia Chronicles or Code Geass

Sun Tzu: whenever you want to attack an army, besiege a city, or kill a person, first you must know the identities of their defending generals, their associates, their visitors, their gatekeepers, and their chamberlains, so have your spies find out.

POV: Maximilian

Location: The citadel at Ghirlandaio inside the (relocated) Throne/Strategy room

Time: 2 weeks after the second battle of Naggier, November 1 1935

It has been a long day I sigh and pinch my nose, I begin to mentally review what has been done and what needs doing before I will call it a night. The defensive emplacements for the citadel have been continually upgraded to the point where I can safely say that from the fortress and 10kms into Gallian land is the most heavily fortified piece of land in all of Europa.

The initial improvised defenses that were scraped together in a hurry after the second battle of Naggier have since been heavily augmented once I learned about the snail's pace at which the gallian army had been advancing at.

Which reminds me… I make another tick on a notepad, to count the number of days that Selvaria has bought me, ideally I would have some measured way to thank her for the boon, but how exactly is one suppose to thank a Valkyria, to thank a goddess? If I followed the Yggdist church's various sects, I suppose I would be on my knees groveling, bowing my head once for everyday.

Doable, in politics face or pride is a commodity to be hoarded or sold at the right time. But Selvaria seems to have a mild aversion to religions that deify Valkyria, probably because her own experiences as one were so negative.

So ultimately I file that way under the to be done category, with the possible amendment to ask for advice on courtship, the family members who either own me their lives, Nunnally and Lelouch, inexplicably like me, Euphemia and Clovis, or who tolerate me, Schneizel and Cornelia.

Returning to the matter of defense, with the extra time I was able to call upon a portion of Zabot's industries massive construction capabilities. Excavators with drill attachments where able to quickly bore holes several meters deep and filled with explosives all wired up to the citadel. Perhaps I went too far, as the current state the entire valley can be detonated on command, one 20 meter hole at a time.

A hesitate knock on the newly installed airtight door, a paranoid excess or perceptive prevention? Time will tell, it's probably Selvaria, given that Jaeger is currently reorganizing the armored divisions shattered at the battle of Naggier.

As I walk over to open the door I wonder what took her so long to get down here, till I remembered that I had moved the command center from the upper levels of the southeast tower into the wine cellar.

The primary reason is security, the Gallian militia squad 7 has proven itself a master at infiltration, and the old command center was simply a renovated Gallian one. Not that it was in a bad location, the ease with which the commanders could head upstairs to the top of the tower and oversee the battlefield was worthwhile.

However a Valkryia with her lance could easily destroy the highly visible towers of the citadel, though I am counting on the premise that Gallia would prefer to capture their historical fortress intact. A nice bonus is that is harder to spy on underground chambers, tonnes of earth are effective dampers against those who would listen in.

I open the door and she walks in with a natural grace that most nobles try their whole lives to achieve, and she does this despite being as doggedly tried as I am. She makes her way over to the main table and looks at the map of the defensive emplacements that I have constructed, the positions of the pie's and the overlapping fields of fire.

It is fortunate that she is so focused on my map that she is unaware of my indiscreet ogling of her chest, my mind might be tired but my body apparently is not.

Usually a quick glance at Gregor and his disapproving glare would be enough to contain my lusts, but alas he has thwarted my will again by getting himself killed ahead of schedule. As it is I can only shake my head and curse at my brother Clovis for designing such an outrageous outfit, I suppose its back to a constant routine of cold showers for me.

After enjoying the scene for a few moments I realize that something is wrong. I notice the tenseness of her body and recall the steady way she walked past me without a word. I realize that she is afraid, since she is stronger than me physically, I doubt she fears my glare, which I am told is quite frightening and omnipresent.

Perhaps she fears for me, at my loss of status and face due to my most recent defeat. I recall the words I spoke to her before the battle "I exist because you exist, one aside the other. You go with my trust." They were supposed to be inspiration words and they were at the time.

Now however they might weight like a noose around her neck, as either her failure reflects directly on me or that she has defiled my trust. Foolishness, a leader is always judged by the actions of their subordinates, and she has already made up for her loss with the time she has bought me.

But she doesn't seem to realize that, and in the face of her fear with the choice of fight of flight, she has clearly chosen to fight. This could be interesting… while her normal somewhat submissive nature is pleasant enough; I had always felt that she was being deliberately non-combative, a throwback to her days at the Valkyria Project.

So let's see how much temper she has been holding out on me, I have always enjoyed playing with fire, jumping out of airships, invading secessionist nobles, going to royal parties… of course one day, one of these things will catch up to me, but by then I can say at least I have lived my life to the fullest.

So summoning the full measure of my carefully constructed imperial arrogance with a dab of annoying righteousness I spoke "So do my defensive preparations arise to your satisfaction?" which succeeds in making her snap "they would, if only the Gallian army is foolish enough to continue launching direct attacks on this one location instead of going around…" she cuts herself off mid rant and slowly closes her jaw, her arms fidgeting like she wanted to bring them up to cup her hands over her mouth.

Responding smoothly like this was a normal conversation between friends about something as mundane as the weather "this citadel was built here because it the only level ground to transport troops and supplies from the empire into Gallia and vice versa, it is impossible to move anything other than light infantry across the mountains."

Selvaria pouncing on the opening I had unintentionally left, replied "light infantry is enough to do heavy damage to undefended supply trains" letting a small grin infuse my features I respond "true, which is why I have had a division of mountain warfare troops there since the beginning of the war"

Selvaria's head snapped down looking for the markers indicating the existence of the divisions, when she naturally didn't find them she looked up at me with narrowed eyes and asked "why aren't they located on this map?"

Now enjoying myself thoroughly I responded smugly "because they aren't under my direct command, they are technically Cornelia's troops assigned to protect the empire's homeland" Finally snapping, she shouted at me "why wasn't I informed?!"

Immediately after her outburst her face became repentant, eyes downcast, attempting to lighten the situation again I joked "indeed, why weren't you informed? You must remember your position"

But before I could continue, Selvaria backed away from the table and kneed before me and spoke in a solemn tone "forgive me my lord, you are of course right, it was insolent of me to presume so much, I am a worthless wrench before your grace's light, so please forgive…"

I stormed over to her and cut her off before she could continue her self-admonishment, one hand pulling her waist to force her to stand up the other hand under her chin forcing her to look me in the eyes.

I can only imagine the menace on my face, since my voice was a barely contained inferno of anger I spit out "Do. Not. Demean yourself like that ever again."

Pausing to collect myself and calm my voice I continued "You are the Valkyria, the being from which the political authority of the Empire and Gallia is derived from" at the slight drop in her eyes, I change tactics "and even without that status you are a talented military commander able to inspire your troops into feats of bravery and achievement they would never dare dream to be possible without you."

Feeling her muscles relax from the grip I had on her waist I continue on this path "you are my chosen, a person I deemed worthy of following me, that I deemed capable of carrying out my will. If you insult yourself you are insulting my judgment."

And a smile slowly formed on Selvaria's beautiful features she muttered a quiet thank you and returned to studying the fortifications, I moved to her opposite side of the table again and began contemplating my buried emotions.

Feeling pleasure because you made someone else happy is something I am already familiar with, watching the commoners faces light up after building a bridge or opening a hospital, is most enjoyable especially compared to the endless false faces of the nobility and their never ending demands, the commoners are just so "authentic" in my brother Clovis's words.

Still the magnitude of the joy that fills me is unfamiliar and disconcerting. As I flip through my memories to search for similarities and differences, I reveal a pattern, it seems my enjoyment of others joys is based on both the magnitude of their joy and the strength of the relationship I had with them. As I process the implications of the fact that I am the most pleased, pleasuring Selvaria, She interrupts my thoughts with a question I had solved a week ago.

"What about the enemy Valkyria?" when I focus on her I notice the fear in her eyes the same look she had when she first walked in. Again given her bravery in combat I doubt that she fears Alicia but rather I am convinced that it is a fear for me.

My mind still tired caused me to off handily remark "Her name is most likely Alicia Melchiott a sergeant of squad 7 under Lieutenant Welkin Gunther. Since she hasn't been used yet to attack your retreating forces I doubt she'll be a serious threat. And if worst comes to worst I'll have her kidnapped in her sleep."

After a short pause, I realized Selvaria's eyes were wide open and she fired off a barrage of questions "how did you know that? where did you get the information? When did you get the information? Who told you?"

I answered calmly "ever since our defeat at Naggier I have increased my spying activities in Gallia by several orders of magnitude, which given the subsequent ease that I found out this information was in hindsight overkill."

At her still questioning glaze I continue "I expanded from my original Federation front company that specializes in gauging economic growth, pillaging style, into more general accountability and government services, buying out Gallian public services at fire sale prices. All this was done using Federation fiat currency of course, printed off a stolen Federation money press, since the Federation uses these machines to control their client states, I doubt the Gallians will know the difference. "

I watched and waited to a sign of understanding, it took a moment, my previous lectures were about the importance of the gold standard to the empires economic wellbeing, she was probably compiling the information for future comparison of economic systems, at least I hope she was.

Continuing onwards I answer the rest of her questions "the actual knowledge was partially obtained from a Gallian Newspaper called the Gallian Tribune, the embedded reporter a ms Ellet had written about a number of important engagements against our imperial army. When I reached an article about my defeat Barious, I realized that she was with the squad that had thwarted our efforts since the loss of Vasel Bridge. Which got me thinking, do you remember those Gallians we met inside the ruins?"

Selvaria nodded and replied "yes I do, they shouldn't have been able to enter unless they were accompanied by a descendent of the Valkyria…" I wait for the realization to hit her as it did me, a moment, then "that girl the one who dared aim a gun at you, she was the Valkyria?! I should have dealt with them right there!" I arch an eyebrow, somewhat shocked at the intensity of her focus on the threat to my health, an interesting sensation.

Still continuing my policy of keeping historical relics intact I mention "we were not properly outfitted in that situation, your lance would have blown a hole in the side of the ruins, possibly destroying irrecoverable data."

To which she deftly countered in somewhat gory detail "I could have bludgeoned them to death with the lance, the words are carved in stone, and the blood will clean out easily enough." To which I readily conceded "true that would have worked well enough, hindsight is always 20/20"

I press onwards "nevertheless once I knew that the Valkyria was with Welkin and Ellet it was a simple matter to get my front company to ask her publishers exactly which squad she was assigned to. After that it was an even easier matter to look up the militia rosters since my front company had won the bidding to organize rest and relaxation."

I paused since she raised her hand, and a slight déjà vu went though me, much like the old days before she became a Valkyria. She asked "I was under the impression that the federation pockets couldn't be beaten in buyouts?" to which I responded "that's usually true, however they are generally constrained by the need to constantly make a profit, my companies are always prepared to take a short term loss if another of my companies can make a long term gain, in this case my front companies lose some money, worthless toilet paper fiat currency anyway, for my military expeditions to succeed."

I arch an eyebrow and wait for the next round of questions, Selvaria does not disappoint and asks "how can you be so sure that Alicia won't attack our defenses, once she realizes that her army cannot overpower the pies, she will surely fall back on the power of the Valkyria. The bonds that she must have built up with her squad after all this fighting would compel her to do so. It is what I would do in her place if my men or you were threatened."

Once again put off guard by her remarks on my bodily health, I retreat into my preplanned reasons to cover my emotions, calmly stating "there are a couple of reasons, first the Gallian government has made no official statements or any transfer requests in regard to their Valkyria, which tells me that their higher ups either don't know what they have, or don't believe a Valkyria exists in their forces, or perhaps are too incompetent to take advantage of the situation."

"Secondly, Alicia is a member of the militia, and the Gallians have the standard inter-service rivalry that plagues many militaries, it seems highly probable that the commanders of the militia and the army will have disagreements about who gets the credit, and naturally these disagreements tend to get quite vocal, but the military seems to be very quiet on that matter which suggests that the militia is holding out on their army counterparts."

At this point Selvaria pointed out "all the reasons you gave limit the ability of Gallian high command to utilize their Valkyria in a strategic context, it does nothing to stop her from picking up her lance and attacking by herself."

Which after pondering for a few grinding moments I realized was true. Still this is why I almost always have a backup plan; my first plan usually fails as most recently demonstrated in my current attempt to take over Gallia, much to my annoyance.

So as I revert to my trump card, my voice may have become a tad blood thirsty towards the end "Valkyria by day, human by night. I'll ideally have her kidnapped while she sleeps, if that proves impossible, poisoning her entire squad's rations should work well too."

Those words seemed to have the opposite effect as intended, instead of reassuring her of my ability to take care of things, she had a look on her face like I had taken something precious to her and thoughtlessly tramped on it.

She kind of slumped down into her seat and stared up at me wordlessly for a few moments before a kind of grim resolve settled on her features and she declared "if that is your wish my lord, I will follow you regardless of whatever shadows you seek to embrace."

I frown at that, unable to understand. Covert wet works and overt blood shedding are two sides of the same coin to me, it is both natural and efficient to switch from one method to the other as the situation warrants.

Covert methods tend to kill less people in the short term as it simply involves the removal of key individuals, but usually kill more in the long term as being secretive leaves the people unsure as to the exact reason why their lives are changing.

Compared to overt warfare a deliberately flashy and brutal method that leaves no doubt as to who is truly the victor and who is the finally vanquished. All of the older power players in the empire have blood on their hands, shed in the dark or spilled in the light.

I have been firmly embedded in that portion of the empire since my mother was killed by political rivals. I have since hunted down and murdered those particular nobles and many others who believed that their station would keep them safe from retribution.

How exactly does she think that I found her? Damnation, I realize that Selvaria might have a distorted image of me, considering I am possibly too good at washing blood off my hands. I ask her in a solemn and slightly mocking voice "what exactly do you believe caused our initial meeting?"

Somewhat confused by the change in topic Selvaria paused then simply stated with complete confidence "it was fate, I had long dreamed of someone to save me from the nightmare of the Valkyria project, and then you appeared as if sent from the heavens themselves."

I had to take a mental step back at the extreme amounts of awe and reverence she put into the end of that statement. This could end badly… I have a choice now, either lie to her and let her keep her delusions about my history, which could blow back on me later on if she finds out the truth from one of my family members; Schneizel comes foremost to my mind.

Or I can bite the bullet here and now, let the Valkyria judge me true or false… hmm, since one is sitting in front of me I guess I can find out if my life is worthy right now.

I begin my exposition to lead her to the truth of my existence "Selvaria, the Valkyria project was the highest of imperial secrets, how then did a mere 21 year old crown prince discover it?" Her tone is unsure, like she knew something bad was coming but can't see from where "you are a talented prince with relations with all sorts of central leaders, perhaps you spotted a reference to it and decided to follow up on it?" again she ended her statement with hope, like I was some kind of curious kitten who accidentally discovered and stopped something so monstrous that people have been killed and buried for the merest glimpse of it.

It was an insult to the paths that I have taken and the person who was forged as a result, I smile grimly and press on to shatter those illusions about me "I found out about the Valkyria project because I was already fully submerged in the cesspool of imperial secrets looking for any possible weapons system to gain on my siblings. I went to visit mad scientists, insane occultists, murderous madmen. I witnessed the latest effects of the newest chemical weapons on the living, I saw bone masked priests attempt to turn the dead into soldiers."

"Through it all one name kept coming up; V.V the former prime minister, was involved in all these activities. Then I heard an insane rumor that V.V was trying to bring back the Valkyria. I have long since learned that the unbelievable is one of the best forms of camouflage so I followed up on it. After all who would dare try to resurrect the Valkyria, those most sacred warriors. Do you know how Bartley Asprius, the man in charge of the Valkyria project died?"

My question had caught her off guard it took a while for her to respond, she was too busy being horrified by my revelations. Still the Q&A method was so strong between us that she did answer, too conditioned to do otherwise even in the middle of shock, much like highly trained soldiers under fire.

Tentatively she answered "Bartley Asprius died in train accident caused by freak landslide" to which I responded "indeed that took some planning, finding out his travel schedule, causing an accident to delay the train, and then setting off the charges buried so deep underground that no one would ever find the evidence."

"He was crushed to death, just like how my mother was killed, all because she was a commoner who caught the eye of the emperor… I must admit I have become a fan of that particular style of murder, I think it could be because I like the sense of justice it brings me."

I plaster a smile on my face, the same one that graced my features when I kill another corrupt noble, a smile of grim dirty self satisfaction. I do this because Selvaria should see everything that she has not seen, before she judges me.

Her response is not what I expected she asks, with tears brimming in her eyes "Maximilian, your retainers told me that she died in an accident?" apparently the truth will take some time to sink in.

To pass that time I continue "the empire, while not as intrinsically and overwhelming evil as the federation, does so like to keep its dirty secrets buried. The imperial family must keep a united front against the outside world, lest we be divided up the federation."

Which reminded me, does she truly understand my place in the imperial hierarchy, I ask what is seemly a very basic question "what is my last name?"

Selvaria hesitatingly, something that struck me as so wrong, answered "Europa, just like your elder brother Schneizel de Europa." A long moment passed, I eventually replied "I am a crown prince, not a numbered prince, I am technically below all 108 members of the extended royal family who can claim the crown before me. The Europa name belongs only to those 99, I lost that name the same night I lost my position as a numbered prince, the night of V.V's betrayal."

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POV: Maximilian, age 22

Location: The Empress Marianne's Mansion security center/barracks

Time: afternoon, July 10, 1928

I am playing a war game with my younger sister… alright I am losing a war game to Cornelia. The plan was to show off the possibilities of a new type of weapon the self propelled artillery gun that my Zabot industry is developing. Unfortunately the result was me being schooled by old school towed artillery when used very effectively in mass.

Perhaps I am simply not suited to using the weapon being too reliant on mass myself. I look over to our GM, game master or referee, Guilford the spearhead of the empire, noted for his ability to cut straight through enemy lines, someone with his talents could effectively utilize the spg's.

Or not, as his particular circumstances may prevent his lobbying for me, namely his somewhat subtle infatuation with Cornelia. An unfortunate situation for him, as he is a common borne, and many imbecilic conservative's prefer inbreeding to preserve whatever trace remains of Valkyria blood that flows through their veins, despite the risk of other genetic deformities.

One of the few things I agree with the Emperor on, propagation of the prosperous, a man like Guilford has much to offer the imperial bloodline, intelligence, talent, loyalty, and a directness to get things done, however Cornelia is currently stuck up with the conservative faction and puts too much on subjective things that are twisted to suit the needs of the user, things like family pride, honor, and racial purity.

She puts the blast template over my G-1 mobile command tank, rolls the dice and knocks out my representative model, I have just lost. I put up my hands in surrender and ask "so I take it you will not be recommending the spg's to the Emperor."

A twitch of a smile on her face "I wouldn't say that yet brother, this was just one test game, the possibilities of such a unit are intriguing, we should switch armies and see how it turns out."

I was somewhat eager to see if she was right and more importantly if I could in fact gain her support. Zabot might finally get some high paying military contracts instead of the usual well paying, but slow growing, train track construction and maintenance.

We are repositioning the pieces when the Empress Marianne entered. Marianne is common borne like my own deceased mother and that's about the only similarity, a very flamboyant women, she does certainly liven things up at the court.

She's a progressive and a very powerful polarizer at the court, the younger members openly adore her but many of the old guard detest her, including the first ten sons of the emperor.

The first ten are more loyal to V.V than the Emperor, and my spies have uncovered some information that links them to my mother's death. I am collaborating with Schneizel the 12th son of the emperor to expose the first ten, but they are so firmly entrenched that it will take some massive event to expose them as the traitors they are.

Marianne speaks, bubbly cheerful as usual. "Oh my, princes and princesses playing children's games together, oh well, better than playing with real people's lives." I shake my head, this is the woman that me and Cornelia are assigned to guard.

Just when I am about to explain to her the importance of these war games to her and hopefully gain another lobbyist on my behalf, Marianne speaks: "Maximilian, Cornelia I need the two of you to withdraw your guards for tonight I have a very private meeting."

Those present wait for my response, my rank is presently only slightly below Schneizel's, I lie through my teeth "of course, I understand the need for secrets" I also understand their value, if she is seeing someone else it could be useful blackmail in my bid for the throne.

Of course I will withdraw my visible troops, but my hidden ones will remain in position should something unpleasant arise. I wait for Cornelia's objections, she is one of those young ones that worship Marianne after all, instead Cornelia said "understood, I will withdraw my troops as well."

Then Marianne left with a bright and cheerful "I'll see you two kids tomorrow." Still confused I drill Cornelia on why she didn't protest, her response was "I follow orders, I dislike the night games that you and Schneizel play, but I trust your judgment regarding the safety of this matter, you'll not let another common Empress die." Direct, brutal, and true, Cornelia is indeed a good match for Guilford.

We leave to give out orders to our respective troops. I encounter a sulking young lieutenant named Jeremiah Gottwald one of Cornelia guards, he was upset that he was being pulled out.

I may have mentioned to him that the kitchen supply of oranges was low but a shipment was suppose to arrive today, when he didn't get it, I blatantly told him to hide in the oranges and I would inform him by radio if anything unusual should happen.

The stage is set, just one last detail, I call my apartment complex and inform Selvaria that I won't home for dinner, keeping my tone pleasant I speak "hello Selvaria, I won't be home tonight, so would you like to talk about your humanization studies now?"

A pause and then a voice that's become very familiar to me "your grace, my lord Maximilian de Europa, 15th in line for the throne, 3rd …." I cut her off before she could get any further, she tends to collect all the titles I have been referred too, not sure why, I ask "what is the advantage of a central hierarchy?"

Another pause and then she answers "to fulfill objectives that require a critical threshold of effort to be breached before any worthwhile returns can be obtained" a good answer, but a bit too cerebral, so I state "in other words, to achieve what is impossible for the individual together"

She responses "yes of course you are correct, will you eat with me tomorrow?" to which I respond "I believe so, I'll see you then" I hang up and wonder at the odd fates that put a 15 year old girl in my charge. For humanization purposes it's like the mute trying to explain sound to the deaf.

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POV: Maximilian, age 22

Location: inside a statue in The Empress Marianne's Mansion gardens

Time: evening, July 10, 1928

I am sitting inside one of the empires new light tanks, the tank itself is embedded inside a oversized concrete statue of a lion. This is the secret behind my hidden troops, I worked with my brother Clovis who designed the outer statue, to create this hidden last line of defense.

In theory the tanks should be light enough not to the collapse the bottom floors of the Mansion, and yet strong enough to punch through any of the walls. Another experimental theory is that explosives attached to the outside of the tank, should be enough to simply blow off the concrete cover, otherwise I'll have large animal statues trying to run over invaders.

Clovis was mildly annoyed that I would destroy his works like that, but I reminded him that this was truly to be used as a last ditch defense of Marianne, turned him around.

Ah… the mysterious guest has finally arrived, a bit on the short side through, I figured the empress would prefer taller men, but then again if it is an escapist fantasy she wants then it would make sense that she would chose a shorter man, the Emperor is quite tall.

He enters and I switch over to an experimental video transmission system, the theories technology is beyond me, but it sends over pictures and I have a separate system for sound to record the transactions.

He uncovers his hood, it's the prime minister V.V, they might actually be exchanging state secrets, and here I was thinking that Marianne was seeing a secret lover.

I was berating myself over this failure until I noticed what V.V was saying "myself and the first ten sons of the emperor believe that you have a negative influence on the Emperor, since ancient times, it has always been women who have lured men into evil" returning my attention to the video and keeping my finger the button that controlled the concrete explosives, which would also signal to the other tanks to begin operations.

I knew I could not act unless V.V does something concrete to harm Marianne, otherwise he would bury me politically. However I wondered if I could live with myself if I let another commoner Empress die in front of my eyes.

My problems were solved in the next moment with both horror and shock, V.V pulled out a submachine gun and started spraying the area, and somehow despite at least 20 kilograms of dress, Marianne managed to weave out of the line of fire.

I can now see why she is called Marianne the flash. I noticed that V.V is barking out orders for more men to come and shoot her. Apparently he took Marianne abilities into account when trying to kill her. I press the button.

The explosives work, the engine is ready, and the main gun loaded, I put a round into V.V, a 45mm shell should make short work out that rumor that he was immortal.

I announce through my loudspeakers "This is Maximilian de Europa, surrender and be spared or follow your master V.V to the grave for the crime of attempting to murder her majesty Empress Marianne, all hail Europa!"

Things quickly became chaotic, V.V had apparently brought a damn lot of men and they seemed wrong somehow, they were fanatical to the death, but guns don't do much against tank armor. It was a slow messy slaughter; the property damage was also immense.

I received a radio message, not from one of my tank units, the voice was panicking "My lord, its your sister… (gunfire in the background)" I run over another fanatic trying to climb on the hull, I ask "is Cornelia here with reinforcements yet?!"

Playing protect the empress with tanks is difficult when I can't punch through too many walls lest the upper floors fall, including Nunnally's and Lelouch's rooms. Hmm the fact that I am thinking about collateral damage while driving a tank around in the main lobby, the irony will kill me when I am less desperate.

The voice came back more desperate than before "your other sister, Nunnally, she's hurt. She came into the kitchen for a midnight snack, I was hiding in the orange box as you told me. Some of V.V's men came in and immediately started shooting at her, I got them but not before one of them hit her, she's bleeding badly!"

Damnation, it takes me a moment to figure out the nearest Ragnite med kit, located in one of my hidden security rooms, bulletproof to boot to.

I relay the instructions to Jeremiah, who then responses "I am heading there now, Nunnally needs someone familiar to her to speak to her and keep her awake."

And alive I grimly finish the sentence, more of V.V's troops are streaming in through the broken main doors, I reload the light tanks coaxial machine gun, a new voice on the radio, weak and tired "brother Maximilian, is that you?"

I try to think back to the times I had seen her, usually babysitting with Cornelia watching over the threesome of Lelouch, Nunnally and Euphemia, I try to use those times now "yes it's your brother Maximilian, the one who with Clovis always loses to your Lelouch, you've seen it before many times, and you'll see it again many times in the future"

I empty the machinegun into the advancing men, they are riddled with holes but some of them stay standing for a good 10 seconds before falling. Something is wrong here… I reload the coaxial.

The voice, weak but with a hint of a smile in it replies "I would like to see that, but I am not sure I can make it, I can't feel my legs…"

more men come, at this rate I'll run out of ammo before they run out of bodies, I start mixing science fiction with fact "it doesn't matter, I'll have Zabot make you new legs."

They cluster together, I fire the hull mounted 85mm mortar at them, a wipe out. A voice weak and questioning but full of wonder, a situation familiar to me but from a different person, "can you really? Won't they be heavier than mine?"

Clever girl, I reload the mortar, the last HE shell, I answer "they will be, but they'll be stronger than yours so in the end it should balance out."

A short lull in the battle and she answers "won't they look funny, the other nobles will laugh at me?"

Lull over, more men come, I fire the coaxial at them, and I respond "your dresses should be able to hide them. Anyone who insults you, simply step on them and show them why metal legs are better than flesh ones."

I reload the coaxial, the gun burns even through my gloves, my last magazine, this time Jeremiah speaks "I've got the Ragnaid and stabilized Nunnally, she's safe."

I relax a bit, and remembered why that conversation was disturbingly familiar, it was just like when I got Selvaria out of the project, the child like questioning about whether I was really there to help her or just another person to hurt her.

Still right now I need help, down to my last shell and magazine, I really need those reinforcements.

A new voice over the radio "this is Lelouch de Europa, the enemies objectives are to kill me and my family, therefore to win this we must survive. Get my family into the tanks, and collapse the building, bury all the cockroaches in one strike."

I pause consider and then curse loudly and creatively while opening the hatch and getting Marianna to scramble into the tank. The servants have already fled, the mansion is only 2 stories tall, the tanks should be able to dig their way out.

The plan is indeed utter genius, and I detest myself for not think of it.

We wait for the signal that Nunnally is safe inside a tank, then I drive the tank repeated through the shear walls. Through my efforts and those of the other tanks, the mansion starts the slowly collapse in on itself, when it finally falls I can't help thinking to myself, Clovis is going to be so mad… he loved that Mansion.

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POV: Maximilian, age 22

Location: The ruins Empress Marianne's Mansion

Time: early morning, July 11, 1928

Collecting the bodies is long and tedious work. Cornelia and her troops finally arrived, some of them slightly drunk, I am currently too tired to be upset that her troops were having fun while I was fighting for my life.

It took me a while, but I eventually realized that V.V's body was nowhere to be found, though a large trail of blood showed me the general direction.

I found him at the edge of a cliff, not bleeding anymore from a fist sized hole that I had put in him. The surreal image that it presented me, my emotional mind shut down, and pure logic went to work.

V.V is an immortal some kind of regeneration technology, he is the head of the biological and chemical weapons departments. Still Salamanders can regenerate limbs, but they can still be poisoned to death. With that thought in mind I load a cyanide round into my revolver and fire.

V.V jerks with the impact but otherwise continues crawling for the edge of the cliff. I guess at his intentions, if he is truly immortal then he should survive and escape a fall from a cliff. I am about to walk over and drag his wounded immortal body back when something smashes into the back of my head.

Fighting off the spots in my vision, I turn around and met the glare of the Emperor Charles de Europa and surprisingly nervous glaze of my mentor Berthold Gregor, alongside them two of Gregor's famed horses. An object falls behind me, and a splash from below, V.V has escaped.

I wait, in my station I cannot speak to the Emperor without being asked to, that should change soon with ten spots opening up ahead of me. The Emperor asks calmly "why have you attacked my brother in such a way?" recalling my earlier lesson in imperial etiquette, pure real politic is called for here.

I answer calm, confident "V.V was a threat to our imperial family's power. I have to dispose of him to maintain my station's power, his incrimination of the first ten merely a side bonus that allows me an opportunely to advance."

The Emperors visage turned murderous, his words calmly delivered and filled with deadly intent "then as a punishment I will have you stripped of your station! You are no longer a member of my family, you will no longer have the Europa name! You will never advance to the throne, but kept as a blood member to have your organs harnessed as needed."

Gregor begins begging the emperor for leniency and restraint. I am on the other hand begin calculating the odds of being able to kill the Emperor right here, the results aren't good unless he comes closer to me.

I respond "very well then, you've done me a favor, when I finally kill you it won't be patricide. My mythos will being on a positive note of murdering a mad tyrant instead of son murdering his father. The Valkyria will judge me right when I finally meet them."

I was very tired which was my excuse for not responding fast enough when his right hook smashed into my face and sent me into blessed oblivion.

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POV: Selvaria

Location: The citadel at Ghirlandaio inside the (relocated) Throne/Strategy room

Time: November 1 1935

Instinct and emotion, two things I have usually ignored ever since my stint at the Project, two things I have been riding high on tonight. When I first came in and I snapped at Maximilian, I could barely recognize myself, but he took it in stride, pushing me onwards to see the limits of my personality.

Now after hearing Maximilian's true history my emotions have reached their peak, while my instincts are screaming at me to do something to wipe that sad resigned look off his face. He gets up slowly and carefully, drained by the telling. I get up and follow him.

He speaks and startles me, his tone so lacking in its usual vigor and command that I find it to be utterly unnatural "Selvaria Bles, if you wish to leave me…you may do so." That pause and the uncertainly implied drove me over the edge.

I turned him around and kicked out his legs forcing him to tumble forward into my bosom. I hold his head in my arms and stroke his hair, while his arms eventually clasp around my body, I imagine we look quite undignified right now, on the floor a mess of limbs, I do know however that I don't care the slightest bit about that.

I told him before that I would become a Valkyria only for him, now I realize that it's not just the lance and the shield but the wisdom and knowledge that come with the title. I manage to say, my voice strong despite my own instability "If the Emperor cannot see your worth, then he is a fool and very alone in his opinion. I, a Valkyria see your worth, Schneizel sees your worth, Cornelia sees your worth, Euphemia sees your worth, the soldiers who follow us see your worth, and the commoners who support us see your worth." I pause and reaffirm my dedication before stating "I promise you I will bring you victory as a Valkyria, on my blood…"

Maximilian stops me with a finger on my mouth which turns into a caress on my face, he looks at me, eyes fiercer than I have ever seen but quietly says "hush now, my lady Valkyria, I much prefer your blood running through your veins, as right now it gives your face such a nice hue"

At which point my face should have turned even brighter red at least judging by how much it was burning up. He continued "I did not ask for my fate, anymore than you did, however here and now we are together and will work through it together, leaning on each other, one step at a time."

And indeed we would.

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POV: Faldio Landzaat

Location: The dungeon inside castle Randgriz

Time: November 1 1935

I sit alone with my thoughts going around in the same circle it has been since the battle of Naggiar. The guilt at shooting my best friend's girlfriend tears at me, I wonder if there was another way to succeed, perhaps I should have come forward with my knowledge and ask for Alicia's volunteer participation.

Part of the reason this guilt is so strong is that she's a good girl she probably would have agreed, though even if she did, would that make me more of a monster for forcing her to make the decision, when I know the second she looks around at her comrades that there is no choice.

I know for a fact that Welkin would have disagreed entirely, he expressed that clearly enough in his right hook, should have hit me some more, would feel better than this guilt. But then if I didn't, I simply don't see a way to have won the battle for Naggiar. And so the circle begins again

A new prisoner is put into the cell next to mine, he is still wearing his red imperial uniform but without the helmet, I wonder why they left him in uniform. I ask "what's your story?" figuring that anything is better than the vicious cycle going on in my head.

He looks at me, I realize he is old, as old as Cody Caird from squad 7, damn, I mean its one thing for a desperate militia to call on the old it's another thing for the imperial army to have such old folks.

He answers in a somewhat too jubilant considering his circumstances tone "I am Sima the Elder, sergeant in Selvaria Bles' hawk legion, under Maximilian's Gallian reunification force. I was captured by the Gallia provincial defense force during the battle of Naggiar, after saving commander Selvaria, I fell to the Gallian's messed up Valkyria. And once Gallia is under imperial control I'll get a medal from Maximilian for my actions."

My shock is overwhelming; there are so many things wrong with what that man just said, I don't know where to begin. First off he is an old man, shouldn't old men be immune to political propaganda by his age? How can he believe the lies he is spewing forth?

Secondly he must have faced the full power of Gallia's Valkyria, up close and personal to boot, and he still believes the empire can win? He's mad! Still disproving his madness is preferable to my own guilty and so I will try to teach this old coot the error of his ways.

I ask with a barely hidden anger "you invaded a sovereign country without provocation! How is your cause just!" He looks at me and squints as if the words I am saying are insane and nonsensical.

He response calmly, but not as happy as before "sovereignty you say? Then who is your sovereign, Mr. Borg?" I am caught off guard and unwilling to answer the question in the affirmative I remain silent.

He continues "As for provocation there is plenty of it, the Gallian Separatist movement during EW1 came when the Empire most needed Gallia's support. The people of empire turned towards their spiritual capital only to find we were unloved by the province we most favored, the shock affected every class of the empire. There are a variety of newer offences caused by Mr, Borg but that's news only for the young ones, who weren't around for the EW1."

Feeling irrationally like a bully, I recall my other question, Gallia's Valkyria I ask "what makes you so sure that your army can defeat our Valkyria?" Sima looked into my eyes with a steely glaze I wouldn't have expected from him when I first met him.

He stated with utter confidence "You Gallian's only have your messed up Valkyria to protect you, the empire has my lord Maximilian, a popular leader, fighting a popular war, young men will pour from all parts of the empire to reclaim our most holy land from those who would defile it."

I sit down, and Welkins words replay in my mind. The war will escalate and I am the one to blame.

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Authors notes long: well its been awhile, sorry about that… the chapter length should hopefully make up for the wait, which reminds me, do you my dear readers prefer, shorter 2-3000 word updates or longer 5000+ words updates?

So one reader kind of wanted Isara to live, I've got a decent plot device for that in place now.

Another reader also answered for the chapter 2 quiz: Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar II , I got into a debate then with my beta about the definition of ancient world. I was thinking the Romans when I did that, but hey his answer works too

On that note History quiz #3, who was also close to a royal family, possibly boasted supernatural powers, and most importantly was according to mythos poisoned, shot, beaten with sticks and dumped in a river who finally died of hypothermia.

While it does seem likely that the future games will be about the federation vs empire from the federations point of view, I needed a powerful enemy for the future and the Western Atlantic Federation fit the bill.

Europa Family numbers: Maximilian was number 15 before he lost his title, and the first ten sons of the emperor have also lost their ranks. Making it the standard numbering used in Code Geass, Odyssus being now 1st Schneizel is 2nd etc…

Updates: some minor corrections, I have broken up the third chapters massive block paragraphs into hopefully something more readable.

Sima the elder is the red imperial shock trooper in the pit right next to Alicia during the second battle for Naggiar. Since he was practically in her face during the battle, I figure that he was close enough to see her unfocused eyes and slow zombie like movements with the occasional instant teleportation maneuver. Hence why he called her messed up, in comparison to Selvaria who is clearly aware of herself.

This flashback was suppose to kill five birds with one stone. Disillusioning Maximilian, Disowning Maximilian, Marianne surviving, Nunnally's legs, Jeremiah Gottwald becoming an orange by hiding in the orange's crate.

Of course the main purpose of this chapter was to be an emotional rollercoaster designed to shatter the class walls built up between Maximilian and Selvaria and allow them to function as a normal couple trying to take over a foreign country…

By the way the other cannon couples are Welkin and Alicia, Varrot and Largo

The ages I am using are as follows, I get my information from fan sites so feel free to correct me.

V.V age 66

Emperor Charles age 66

Empress Marianne age 47? Guess based off having Lelouch at age 20

Schneizel age 29

Maximilian age 29 younger by a couple of months

Cornelia age 27

Clovis age 26? Pure guess here

Selvaria age 22

Euphemia age 17

Lelouch age 17

Nunnally age 17


	4. Honor Duels

Ch4

Sun Tzu: "in general, in battle one engages with the orthodox and gains victory through the unorthodox."

_Italics means Maximilian's thoughts _

POV: Maximilian

Location: The citadel at Ghirlandaio inside the (relocated) Throne/Strategy room

Time: November 2 1935

I am a morning person; no further proof is needed to label one such as I as the very embodiment of evil itself.

To be awake and active at the unholy hours of the morning, while everyone else is still fighting of the remnants of sleep and waiting for the chemical reinforcements to arrive, is the very pinnacle of being a selfish ass.

Indeed in the face of such overwhelming evil, the invasion of Gallia and the murder of my family members are to be expected, alongside taking candy from a baby.

Now however, It appears that something like karma does exist in this world, as I am truly reaping what I have sown.

Because after an enjoyable early morning breakfast with other demons of the morning and avoiding being run over by the zombies that consist of the rest of my troops I found a half awake Selvaria, wearing less than half of what she usually does.

It would appear that my eternal punishment would be to always have morning wood. It would appear that the fates are truly fair and infinitely cruel.

Admittedly this situation is partly my own fault; I had wished to see how she was fairing after last nights rather stressful revelations.

I had forgotten that Selvaria defiantly falls under the non morning person category.

She is physically able, but tends to mechanically follow a preset routine, her higher cognitive function seem to be waiting for coffee reinforcements before fully activating.

Which is why I am currently stuck in the unfortunate (or is it enviable?) position of sitting in her kitchen watching her make breakfast.

She currently only has the torso portion of her usual uniform on, meaning her legs, such nice legs, her arms, smooth and caress able, are bare and pure, unlike my thoughts.

I realize at the current rate I won't be able to get though this meal without doing something stupid and regrettable.

Subtly taking out one of my daggers that are always on my person, I jab myself in the leg under the plate armor.

Since I am wearing chainmail underneath I can't cut myself, but the pain is comparable to pinching myself, something hard to do with chainmail on.

I regain some composure, I am fortunately normal in not mixing pleasure and pain.

At last Selvaria sit down with a fine looking meal in front of her.

Fortunately the table is not glass, which means that I can hopefully avoid thinking about the raw temptation that is labeled as Selvaria's legs.

She speaks in a chipper tone that I would normally consider out of character for her this early in the morning "forgive me, my lord for not making a portion for you, but I wasn't expecting you and I know you normally eat with the troops to instill a feeling of sharing their burdens."

Still recovering from my earlier lust filled wonderings I offhanded remarked "a secondary effect, but an important one to be sure, an army marches on its stomach and all that. The primary reason is to lessen the chances of someone successfully poisoning me."

At her incredulous look, which made me wish I had a camera for the moment, I elaborated "if I had my food privately delivered to me, there are then a massive number of chances to poison my food. The waiter bringing it could do it, someone who bumps into the waiter could do it, etc. The amount of poison needed to do the job is also small, since it would all be going directly to me."

At her still questioning look I continue "eating at the mess hall means that if someone were to poison me they would need enough to poison the entire batch of food, an amount that should be easily noticeable. And finally eating at the mess hall means I need a lesser number trustworthily cooks, nobles may conspire but it's the cooks who do the actual poisoning."

Selvaria sighs, and I catch her looking distastefully at her food. So much for me being more aware in the morning, I didn't even notice I was making her lose her appetite.

She pushes her still warm plate over and makes a motion towards the food with her hand while giving me an arched look that asked if I trusted her.

After skillfully putting away the knife I was using to poke myself without Selvaria noticing, I ate a small portion of her meal. It was exquisite…

I pause trying to think of how to best drag my foot out of my mouth, but seeing her increasing agitation at my silence I opted for plain honesty. "It's good, where did you learn how to make this?"

She immediately cheers up as if my hastily thrown out praise meant the world to her, she starts what I would call babbling from someone I respected less "I learned from my mother, I have been trying to replicate the taste of her meals as a hobby."

I ponder that statement for a moment, it doesn't really help me narrow down the search for her family. While the fact that her mother cooked could mean Selvaria's from a lower to middle class family, there are a considerable number of nobles that cook for themselves.

My mental wonderings are interrupted by a random attention getting sound from Selvaria, she spoke "I have been thinking about Gallia's Valkyria, I believe there's a simple way to neutralize her without going to such extremes as poisoning, simply steal her lance and shield."

My mind comes to a grinding halt, fortunately my face retains its passive look while my mind is in utter turmoil. Such a simple solution, so elegant, so efficient, so perfect, I am appalled that I didn't think of it myself.

Stealing it is simple enough, all I need to do is inform the Gallian museum that it was stolen from of the likely location of their national treasures, given the complete information black out by the government regarding the valkyria, those fools will probably demand the lance and shields return and doom their nation in doing so.

Later through my federation fronts I can pretend to be a reclusive eccentric with an interest in Valkyria artifacts and purchase them for my private collection, all for a considerable donation of course.

I return to the real world after my scheming and relate my plans to Selvaria, along with a moderate amount of praise.

I said "it's a solid workable plan that eliminates all the danger while adding the possibility of converting Alicia to an asset." My inner sycophant was more exuberant. "_It's the most sublime and perfect of plans and proves that your inner radiance is reflected your outer beauty_," I thought.

I suppose have been hanging around Clovis and Schneizel to much, I am combining their habits of speech, poetry and praise respectively.

Still despite my perceived difference between modest and extreme amounts of praise, Selvaria seems to have taken my modest words as if they were the ones of my sycophant. That bodes ill for my more advanced plans to bind her to me through romance…

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POV: Radi Jaeger

Location: The citadel at Ghirlandaio ramparts

Time: November 2 1935

I am sitting atop one of the Crenellations, those rectangular blocks that were supposed to provide protection for archers during the medieval ages. At least, that's what Maximilian told me they were one time he spotted me sitting on them.

My seat is comfortable, but my situation is not, as I stare out at all the defensive emplacements that Maximilian's troops have built, a part of me is awed, another part is angry.

As usual in the short experience I have been serving with Maximilian, the speed and scale of his projects never fail to impress. He has built in a mere two weeks more entrenchments than the entire Fhirald high command and their federation "advisers" managed to do in six months.

Another anger reappears at the thought of Fhirald high command, and their failings, but this one is old and easily suppressed because focusing on it does not help the future.

As for focusing on my new anger, if I can solve it I more thoroughly enjoy my life. I close my eyes and meditate on my feelings and thoughts. These defenses will undoubtedly repel any Gallian attack on them, but then what?

The first time the empire was able to overcome Gallia's defense was with surprise, but now after fighting with the imperial army for more than half a year Gallian's will now be prepared. Their errors in doctrine corrected by real war, the Gallians will entrench and the empire will be unable to break through this time.

Add in the loss of the Batomys and its ability to create a break through with its armor and gun power… at this rate the situation will develop into a replay of EW1, two well entrenched sides facing off and no end in sight.

I suppose the empire will eventually win this time around now that they can focus their might on a single, abet broad, front against the westerns.

Of course, that means that Fhirald's independence will be delayed and its people will languish under the current imperial mismanagement. The current imperial overseer is some royal fop; a prince, Clovis, that is clearly incapable and thus sent to somewhere he couldn't damage important imperial holdings.

Fhirald might not be important to the empire, but we are humans too--- if only we had the same industrial strength as the empire or better yet Maximilian's conglomerate…

Damn it all, I need to snap out of this uncharacteristic brooding and find a way to quickly end this war against the Gallians.

I open my eyes and stare out at the approaching Gallian forces, they are sloppy and disorganized, their units are arriving out of formation and can be easily picked off in piecemeal, thus vulnerable to attack…

I hop down from my perch and rushed to find Maximilian, or tried to as I quickly smash into a red assault trooper who must have been waiting for me for some reason. As I helped him up I asked "what are you doing here?"

To which he responded in a ecstatic tone "It's an honor to finally meet with you sir, I am Otto. I also came from the imperial province of Fhirald."

And just like that, the wind is taken out of my sails. A fellow Fhiraldian, proudly proclaiming Fhirald's status as a vassal state of the empire! I listen intently my heart clenching in anticipation and dread.

Otto blithely continued, unaware of my mounting horror: "… all of our lives were improving, and then I heard that you had joined up with The Maximilian. I knew that I needed to join the imperial army for the Gallian invasion to be a part of a venture with the two most important people to Fhirald, Jaeger the knight, and Maximilian the rebuilder!" My horror doubled when Otto proclaimed Maximilian's title with reverence and awe that I normally associate with the imperials talking about their emperor.

I stood there dumbstruck by the new information for at least a minute before the worried cries of soldiers around me brought me back to reality. Trying for calm I declare "I'm fine, I'm fine, just a little shocked, its been so long since I have heard information about home. Do you know where Maximilian is by any chance?"

Otto, now visibly nervous, stated "y-yes I heard his voice from the Azure Witch's room." I bolted and ran as fast as I could, my mind needing confirmation from Maximilian himself. This level of involvement in Fhirald means that Maximilian will be unlikely to give Fhirald its independence as he promised. On the other hand, no… I must secure Fhirald's independence first, things will work themselves out afterwards… They must.

I heard Otto call out behind me, "You mustn't disturb the Valkyrian Witch!" and ignore him. Until I see Selvaria's power with my own eyes I will continue to believe that her status as a Valkyria is simply another propaganda weapon developed by Maximilian to demoralize the Gallians.

I reached Selvaria's room and throw open the door, and then things happened in rapid succession. First, I noticed the fairly domestic scene that was highly unusual considering the actors involved. Second, I noticed the Selvaria's attire (or lack thereof). Third, I noticed the knife that is now embedded in the door frame right next to my eye, vibrating slightly. Fourth, I noticed that Selvaria now had Maximilian's white and crimson cape draped over her appealing figure.

Fifth, perhaps what I should have noticed first, were Maximilian's eyes. His eyes, which are normally so cold and unfeeling, were now filled with a bottomless rage to the unfortunate fool they were glaring at.

Maximilian's voice was calm though his words were cruel enough "I missed. Let's try that again, shall we? One eye in payment for the sight you've witnessed and the dishonor you brought upon my personal Valkyria."

I, to my momentary shame, brought my arms to cover my face and fell back on my ass like a child fearing punishment from a parent. Still, if I could do it again I would have done the same thing, Maximilian's first throw was so fast I didn't see it until after it could have killed me.

After a tense moment I lowered my arms and found another unusual sight. Selvaria, still covered by Maximilian's cape was holding back a still furious Maximilian with apparent ease but with concern written all over her face.

I had to struggle to make out her words "…please my lord, do not become angry on my behalf. I am unworthy of such actions, besides after what happened in the research facility being seen exposed was standard practice, I am used to such things." When she finished her voice was barely a whisper, her eyes sad but filled with determination.

Another surprise then, Maximilian turned and leaned his head down until their foreheads were touching. He then declared in a normal, but compared to Selvaria's whisper it felt like a booming voice "I will accept your request, but I will change your statement about yourself worth, now go get dressed, I doubt Jaeger and I will get much work done should you remain in that state."

From my embarrassing position on the floor I watched Selvaria rush off, her cheeks stained red. As Maximilian turned back to me I thought I saw a glimpse of an amused smile before his features hardened into their usual emotionless mask.

My emotions racing, I blurt out "what exactly is your relationship with Selvaria anyway?!" Maximilian to his credit actually answered "I am the dominate male in her life, that should serve as explanation for most cultures." He elaborated "Originally I was her father figure, then her elder brother, currently I am jockeying to be her friend with plans to seduce her into tying the knot."

Then to my surprise again, he walked over towards me and sat down in cross legged position right across from me. It was Fhirald custom to sit like this on the floor, it dated back to when we were a nomadic people and made our homes in mobile tents. I had thought that no imperial, scratch that, no northerner was able to sit down like that.

After readjusting my legs into the cross legged position and calming down from my near maiming experience. After all who in the empire would care if one its vassal soldiers were disfigured, by a prince to boot, they would say it was an honor. On that line of thinking my original anger returns and I find my voice again.

For his part, Maximilian simply asked "So what was so important that you of all people would come into a ladies room uninvited? After all, it's usually only a matter of time before an invitation comes to you." After all the shocks he has given me this late morning, this one could no longer stall my righteous anger.

I shouted "Maximilian, I demand to know what you are doing in Fhirald, are you going to violate our agreement that Fhirald will regain its independence from the empire if I win you enough prestige? Will you give up your investments once Fhirald regains its sovereignty?"

Maximilian's response was one slightly raised eyebrow, then he stated still as calm and as cold as ice "I believe my exact words were that I would free your country from the incompetent imperials that were destroying it. I believe I am fulfilling that promise, unless you think that I am incompetent?"

My mind is once again thrown in turmoil, but before I could utter a protest or perhaps a howl of anguish, Maximilian stops me with a raised hand and a question. "Let's assume that you were right, and Fhirald will gain its independence, what then?"

My answer was quick and automatic, "My people will regain their dignity and prosperity after being freed from imperial oppression."

"Under what form of government?"

"A monarchy of course!" A strong statement, indisputable in my mind, however it was apparently not in Maximilian's mind.

"Under you?"

"Of course not," shock slowed my response, "a member of the great Khan's bloodline."

Another of Maximilian's eyebrows raised, his reply came out bullet fast as ever. "Ah, so Fhirald will once again house the ruler of all under heaven, interesting."

It took me a moment to realize what was wrong with that statement, the great khan wished for one kingdom under the eternal blue sky. The ruler of all under heaven is a title held by the figurehead of the southern states, the self proclaimed middle kingdom.

My response was a cry of disbelief. "Of course, not a ten year old girl! My country needs a capable leader to rise up from the ruins. Plus, Fhirald is not a part of the middle kingdom, surely you know that!"

Maximilian's eyebrows lowered, signaling what? Disinterest? Disappointment? But his reply was still annoyingly fast "I believe that after Fhirald conquered the middle kingdom there was much intermarriage and merging of the royal bloodlines."

He continued despite my flabbergasted expression, "The same thing happened when Fhirald took over the Northern states, I am sure that if I looked hard enough I could find an ancestor that married into the great khans family."

He left that ominous statement in the air for a moment before he continued, "regardless, Jiang Lihua seems to have the right personality for the job. Perhaps more importantly her regent Li Xingke is actually competent and cares about her development."

I reiterate, for myself as much as for Maximilian "Fhirald must be ruled by a Fhiraldian, not someone with ties to another state."

Maximilian's face remained perfectly neutral was he stated "that's troublesome then, all the Fhirald royalty that remained in Fhirald have been killed by your former high command. The only ones left are those who fled into the empire and renounced their royal heritage to live the quiet life."

My hopes rose only to be dashed as Maximilian continued "Independence was supposedly promised, not kidnapping some scared imperial civilian to prop up a recovering country."

The silence that hung in the air was heavy for me; Maximilian looked completely unaffected while he shredded my dreams. Scrambling for options and left flailing by that composure, I suggested the first thing that came to mind. "What about a republic then?"

Again, with one raised eyebrow Maximilian replied with some interest. "A people's republic, eh? Could be interesting, not that Fhirald could be any other type."

My response was a question, not bothering to hiding my utter ignorance on the subject "What else is there?"

"A landed estates republic, like what the Atlantic federation used to be? Fhirald can't because ,I've already purged all the nobility. A banker's republic, by the bankers for the bankers, what the federation is now? Fhirald shouldn't do that because they would be too late to the ponzi scheme that is now the Federation's to benefit from."

Desperate now, and grabbing at straws I somewhat manically declared "the Federation has to support Fhirald, if only as a counter to the Empire!"

Maximilian's face hardened but still he calmly replied, "even if the Federation wanted to support Fhirald it can't, as Fhirald is a landlocked nation. Even worse is that Fhirald is landlocked by the Empire or Imperial allies."

Now his tone turned consolatory. "Besides, Fhirald has been used by the Federation before, do you truly wish to repeat that experience?"

I close my eyes, my turmoil becoming a migraine to match my worst hangover experiences.

My spiral into depression and rage was interrupted by Maximilian getting up, in one smooth motion from the cross legged position without using his arms. It was a feat that left me wondering what else he was capable of. This then lead to the annoying realization that I truly knew very little about him, despite working with him for a year.

Maximilian stated with an outstretched hand to help me stand "Why don't you challenge me for leadership then? Its an old Fhirald custom is it not? Of course I can't give you my inherited position, but if you win… you can immediately leave for Fhirald and assume control over my investments there. If you lose you will continue to serve under me. Does that sound reasonable?"

As I stood up with Maximilian's aid I noticed that his gaze was sweeping round and I finally realized that we had drawn quite a crowd. Apparently sitting in Selvaria's open doorway was not the most private of places. Selvaria herself had apparently dressed and was finishing off her morning meal.

I weighed my options, Maximilian seems confident enough about his prospects of winning the challenge, if I lose then life will go on and Fhirald tradition does allows aanother challenge for leadership in decade. However if I win I can immediately attempt to modernize Fhirald with Maximilian's investments, honestly how hard can that be?

I declare with full formality "I, Radi Jaeger of Fhirald hereby challenge Maximilian, Crown prince of the Eastern Europa Imperial Alliance, for leadership."

Maximilian immediately responded "I accept, as challenged I declare the method to be close combat, winner is whoever draws first blood. No explosives, poisons, compressed gases, springs, and thrown weapons. Are we in agreement?"

Quickly closing my open mouth at the thoroughness of the rules list, I responded "Yes."

Selvaria however had objections, she quickly stood up in a graceful motion that somehow managed to avoid rattling the plates and stated in a tone worthy of a queen "Fhirald custom also allows a champion to fight in place of the leader, Maximilian, your time is too important to be used in such a trivial matter, Jaeger, I will see to your defeat."

This is an unexpected and unwelcomed turn of events. Fighting a girl is bad enough, I have seen Selvaria practice from a distance a few times. What was brutally clear was that she took sword fighting very seriously, and I reluctantly admit that her skill is likely better than my rusty forced lessons from youth. Still losing wouldn't be so bad, I could claim I lost to a valkyria rather than a girl.

My morbid train of thoughts was interrupted by Maximilian "While I certainly appreciate your offer, there are two very important reasons I must decline. One since you are a Valkyria, it makes even less sense for you to spend your time in such a boorish fashion, since the outcome is clearly in your favor. Two, my word, the reputation on which my future deals depend upon requires me to personally engage in this duel."

Selvaria looked unhappy with the rebuke, and seemed willing to argue further, until Maximilian walked up to her and leaned intimately close to her ear and whispered something. She shook her head and followed the group to the court yard.

When we arrived at the court yard a fairly large number of troops were eagerly awaiting our arrive, news sure travels fast. Maximilian and I took positions 2 meters apart, I glanced around. The troops faces were interested, but not so much as to indicate an intense hatred of Maximilian and eagerness at his possible defeat. It seemed like a detached interest almost, like watching a sport you've heard about but never saw.

Selvaria was positioned by the door into the citadel; I had to look away quickly as her glaze had the promise of extreme violence towards me, should anything unhealthy befall Maximilian.

Maximilian himself was standing in a completely relaxed pose, and more importantly without a weapon. I stated "Selvaria give Maximilian your sword." I thought it was an excellent strategy as it would also take away sharp objects from a soon to be enraged Selvaria.

Again Maximilian interrupted "No need, you may always assume that I am armed." As if to demonstrate he pulled out two daggers from under his sleeves in a slow obvious manner, but then returned them with a staggering speed.

A dagger fighter, I haven't sparred against one of those yet. Still the location of his sheathes is poor, he needs the opposing arm to draw his weapons, in that case if I can occupy one of his arms then I can prevent him from ever drawing his weapon and force a win. The plate armor poses a problem, winner is the first to draw blood, and I can't kill him otherwise no one will keep his promise.

I draw my sword, my stance has the sword tip behind me and pointed at the ground, my target then is his left armpit. I charge forward and swing my sword upwards towards the gap between the plates.

Things happen very quickly. First I hear a sharp crack. Second I see Maximilian's hand shoot out to catch my blade, incomprehensible; if he draws blood from his hand then he loses right now. Third I see his right fist charging towards my face.

I block the fist with my left hand, but this weakens my grip on my sword and Maximilian yanks the blade from my hand. I thought he would flip the blade and use it properly, instead he spun around brought the hilt down on my braced arms with crushing force. Arms numbed I was helpless as he again stuck me in the stomach with the hilt of my own blade.

I fall on my back to the ground; Maximilian straddles me and holds my blade at my throat between his hands, if I move I will guillotine myself. He presses the blade down lightly on my chin then lifts it up, a small stain of blood on my sword.

My blood is spilled, but what about Maximilian's blood? Surely with all that pressure on my blade his hands would be torn and bleeding heavily. As if reading my mind, one of his hands open, and I see under the white glove a sheet of interconnected ringed pieces of metal, and no blood.

I admit it "I yield, I will continue to serve you." Maximilian gets off of me and proffers a hand. My mind despairs at the knowledge I will have to wait a decade to help Fhirald. At my non response he declares in a clear decree "Since the rewards of the challenge were limited, I shall give you a bonus for your attempt. After Gallia is subjugated you may go to Fhirald and serve me there by ensuring my investments continue to grow and the modernization continues."

At this declaration Otto and the other Fhiraldian's give a huge cheer, from the intensity I believe there are currently a good number of Fhiraldians in this army. Fhiraldians fighting for Fhirald, all is right again in the world. Grinning like a fool I snatch of Maximilian and pull him into a bear hug. I was so caught up in the moment I only later realized how ramrod stiff Maximilian went when I hugged him.

After prying me off him and giving me back my sword with his right hand, Maximilian then bestowed a greater honor upon me, he asked "Since I have regained your trust and I find myself short on friends with Gregor's death, will you become my blood brother? While I lack the food that cannot be eaten, we can easily exchange blood."

My mind raced with the implications, a blood bond is like a nuclear family bond, but closer because it is freely chosen. A blood bond with Maximilian will mean that he can call upon me for military needs in his campaigns to dominate Europa, but also that I can call upon him for more financial and industrial aid for Fhirald's future.

I eagerly accepted "it would be my honor." And was about slice my hand open when Maximilian made a stalling motion and then proceeded to begin stripping off his armor. I had heard of Northerners being so heavily armored that they needed assistance to take off all their armor. Maximilian managed by himself, though it was awkward at times, not that I would ever tell that to him directly…

Now with all of his top pieces removed, revealing a surprisingly thin body considering how much power he was putting behind his blows, we each cut our right hands and shook vigorously for a minute to fully exchange and merge blood.

Then Maximilian called out "Selvaria, come, join us for this ancient ritual." Which then made for a humorous scene, Selvaria had pulled out her blade and cut her hand in a smooth move and was marching over at a brisk pace. All the while however she was keeping her eyes focused on anything other than Maximilian's chest, her eyes did glare at me for a moment, I shrugged and sent her and all's well that ends well look.

Maximilian took Selvaria's hand and started pumping, however after the fifth pump Selvaria's body suddenly flared blue then collapsed, and I could have sworn that Maximilian's eyes flashed red.

I watched Maximilian try to extract his hand, he got a few centimeters away and then Selvaria's hand shot out and grabbed it again, I thought he stifled a wince.

Maximilian again extracted his hand, but this time repositioned himself behind Selvaria so when she made another grab, his hand was under hers. I watched in mild surprise as he then proceed to carry her bridal style back into the citadel.

I couldn't resist using my new status as blood brother, I called out "can't get out of a women's grasp?" When he reached the door, he kicked something over to me. When I picked it up I saw that it was the steel doorknob. It had finger imprints on it, like if someone was crushing a ball of clay instead of steel. It hit me that was the door that Selvaria was stand next to, and then that sharp crack during the duel was her ripping off the doorknob in a fit of nervousness.

My respect for Maximilian grew as he was living with a Valkyria so casually strong, to be able to destroy steel furniture a in mild fit of rage.

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Author's notes:

Well I am back, sorry about the long delay, finals got in the way as it usually does. Other bad things happened like my ps3 disk reader broke, so I am no longer able to review scenes from the game, and I am basically working on pure memory.

Fhirald is of course based on Mongolia; there is ritual that binds people together as blood brothers. The details are unknown to me so I made something up, hopefully this does not offend anyone.

I apologize if Jaeger seems OOC in the beginning, I designed this scene back when the only details about him was that he was an honorable knight, not the laid back easygoing warrior that the anime shows. In my defense there isn't much for him to be happy about.

On the other hand I would like to know if got Jaeger's personality correct after the proclamation. I would also like feedback on the fight scene.

On that note, this chapter's quiz: what fighting style was Maximilian using during the actual duel, not the demonstration.

And so I bid you farewell for another two weeks at any rate. Though of course reviews will make me go faster, specifically reviews of the latest chapters, as I feel that I did something wrong with ch3 but I frankly have no idea what, so please review!


	5. Lies and Truth

Ch 5

Sun Tzu: "Thus in military campaigns I have heard of awkward speed but have never seen any skill in lengthy campaigns. No country has ever profited from protracted warfare. Those who do not thoroughly comprehend the dangers inherent in employing the army are incapable of truly knowing the potential advantages of military actions."

The Valkyria could always tell the truth from her vassals

-Imperial mythos

The blood bond will bind its participants closer than true blood does

-Fhirald legend

_Italics means Maximilian's thoughts _

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POV: Selvaria

Location: bedchamber

Time: November 2 1935 early afternoon

As usual I come to consciousness slowly, and to compound things, this time I am especially comfortable. I cuddle closer to the warm pillow I am currently snuggled against, its dim struggles barely register in my temporarily added brain.

A muffed sound reaches my ears followed by a clear _Selvaria you're holding too tightly_. That voice, and a clear command I would follow to the ends of the earth and beyond. I immediately ease my grip and open my eyes.

The sight that greets my eyes was shocking, Maximilian was beside me and was the warm pillow that I was so eagerly squishing a moment ago. He was still bare chest, which caused my eyes to immediately focus on anything else lest I lose control of my lower body again.

The wall behind him was filled with daggers, which would logically lead to the conclusion that we were in Maximilian's bedroom. I reacted badly, for the second time today I forgot to control my Valkyria strength.

I pushed with enough force to send him rocketing into the display of daggers clear across the room. A mindless blink, then I rushed over to him with a cry of anguish, pawing over his body to check the damage. It was extensive, all the daggers were thankfully sheathed but the blunt trauma was evident across his back.

Maximilian's mouth moved, but nothing came out but a hacking cough and some blood. I was on the verge of panicking when his voice came again crystal clear _Ragnaid in the bottom drawer in the cabinet to the right of the bed_.

I rush over and throw open the drawer but stopped dead when I came into view of that hateful blue glow. My past memories of being constantly surrounded by and injected with the liquid came pouring out. A hacking cough brought me back to the present, the person who rescued me from that nightmare needs that blue glow.

Crushing my phobia with the same ruthless determination that won my generalship, I grab the hateful/life saving ragnaid and rush back to Maximilian's side. Fortunately ragnaid is simple to use, given that it is distributed to all frontline soldiers.

I simply twisted the cap and allowed the ragnite to mix with the chemical solution which then produces the healing paste, which I then proceeded to slather onto his wounds. A few nerve wracking moments later and his back looks much better, I breathe out a sigh of relief.

A minute or so later, Maximilian forces himself into a sitting position, his face barely portrays anything as usual, however I can hear his moans in my mind. I ponder my knowledge for a moment, I heard Maximilian's voice clearly and obtained information that I didn't know before, but I did so when he also couldn't speak.

Maximilian's voice, his real voice, brought me out of my ponderings "well that was interesting" _hopefully the rest of our midday actives won't be so stressful_. He continued his real voice starting something and his echo finishing it "I can't recall off hand whether I ever told you about where I placed my emergency ragnaid." _And the fact you seem studiously avoid even mentioning the stuff makes this very suspicious_.

But perhaps realizing the tone of his thoughts he said "not, that I am ungrateful that you did find the ragnaid." _Thank you, my lady valkyria_. Great, just great not only have my valkyria abilities prevented me from having a normal life, now it seems that they will surely drive me mad.

Desperate to delay the inevitable I ask the most plebian thing that came to mind "So how'd I end up in your bed with you?" it wouldn't be the first time, when I was younger I use to crawl into his bed all the time if only to assure myself that this wasn't some wonderful dream that I wake from. I thought I had got over that habit after going to the imperial academy.

Maximilian gave me an odd look before responding "First I laid you out on the bed, then I sat down on the floor besides you, you wouldn't let go of my right hand, and so I decided to update the white paper on Fhirald's modernization. After some time passed you yanked me into the bed and then awoke." _I haven't been sent flying through the air like that since I was a child_.

That did it, the Maximilian I know would never say something like that out loud. I relay the information to him, trying to keep my voice from breaking "Maximilian, I think I can read your thoughts" I waited for the condemnation, for him to back away in fear, to call for guards to take me forever away from him.

Any sane and rational person would protest the invasion of mental privacy, and he is a prince, he obviously has more secrets than normal people. Secrets so potent that it could affect the entire empire. Surely any moment now…

Maximilian tilled my chin upwards to look him square in the face, it would be an understatement to say that he was excited. He had a look of barely contained excitement, like his mind was brimming with possibilities and he couldn't wait to test them all out. The only other times I had seen him like this were when a new weapon system was being demonstrated to him successfully, the most recent being the ragna cannon.

His voice almost purred with eagerness "lets test it out" _this is going to be fun_. He continued "I am going to review my family history, see what details you can extract." _What dirty secrets I am keeping_. It takes a moment for my mind to get over the fact that he was eager to be a test subject, so starkly contrasting my own experiences as one. But after a while of sit there on the floor staring into each other eyes, enjoyable, I heard nothing but the buzzing of my own thoughts.

The silence was finally broken by Maximilian who asked now somewhat more subdued "see anything interesting?" _though I doubt it_. I cautiously shook my head, I tentatively asked "what makes you so sure I saw nothing?"

He replied "when going through my history I spent extra focus on things that I was sure would shock and horrify you, but I saw no response during those events." _Not that anyone would ever forget the image of that proud and perfect __Schneizel hunched over a toilet throwing up his guts_.

At that I managed to look properly scandalized and blurted out "You saw Schneizel throwing up?!" Now Maximilian was getting excited again he said "yes one of his generals challenged him to a drinking contest." _His one weakness, he always needed to live up to impossible expectations_.

He paused for a moment and then spoke, his voice confident "so, it's not telepathy but somehow you can read the undercurrent to my sentences" _fascinating_. He continued "I am going to blatantly lie to you, then tell you a half truth, and then a whole truth, tell me what else I was thinking." _Let's see how accurate this ability is_.

I numbly nod, willing to go along with anything he wants, still somewhat shocked. He starts off with a self deprecating humorous tone "I am superior to Lelouch in every mental arena and have never once lost to him." _I have lost to Lelouch in almost every game we have played together, the one time we had a draw was very pyrrhic_.

I repeated his undercurrents back to him along with a question about why he seemed so pleased with my newfound knowledge/abilities. He responded very pleased with the situation "this allows you to always understand my operational intent and speeds up our OODA loop" _it also allows me to privately communicate with you, very useful in certain situations_.

His undercurrent voice held a seductive promise in it. Oh my… well as long as I am useful to him and he is happy…

He continued "if Jaeger and I fought 500 years ago, it would have involved me chasing him in full armor with him riding away, every so often turning around and firing arrows at me. The winner would be determined by whether he ran out of arrows before he killed me." _Only true in one on one, in a real war, my eagerness for a decisive victory my army would chase his and be strung out in a line until his ambush units hit my exposed sides and routs me_.

Again I repeat this longer undercurrent and seriously ask "I thought seeking a decisive victory was the correct approach to the imperial way of war, I recall reading about one of our enemies saying 'the charge of the empire can knock down the walls of Randgriz.' Isn't our modern armored doctrine based off the cavalry charge?"

Maximilian responded, pleased beyond my ability to understand "yes it is, and yes it does work, as long the opponent has equal or weaker combat power than you." _Fortunately for the empire, there exists no threat with greater combat power otherwise the limits of our doctrine would soon be exposed_. "This is why I had Jaeger brought into my triumvirate, to gain another viewpoint of war, specifically from someone used to thinking about fighting with the weaker force." _Did you understand all that?_

I pause wondering why I wouldn't follow that, until I realized that he didn't pause between his statements. If I hadn't been able to simultaneously read his undercurrent and listen to his words then I would have been lost. Through what bothered me was I couldn't figure out which shocked me more, the speed at which Maximilian can adapt a situation to his needs or the ease at which this mode of communication came to me.

It felt like the most natural thing in the world, and that really bothered me. My valkyria powers are what set me apart, tore me away from my family and shattered my world, they have never given me any true happiness. Wait that's not true, without them I would never have been brought into my lord's grace, and the pleasure it gives him, I shiver just thinking about that.

Somewhat settled I wait for the final statement, Maximilian obliges quickly enough but with a conspirators quiet something I rarely heard from him "and the big secret to my success, to Zabot's continued innovation and growth, the peace to my paranoia is darcsens…" _and not like other imperial companies that only use them for slave labor, so what's your judgment valkyria_?

I rushed to reassure him "I have always trusted your judgment" even as the implications sunk in and doubts began to form. Even someone of Maximilian's stature and power could easily be toppled by the public outcry if they found out. Even the emperor himself may not be able to contain the peoples hatred of the darcsens.

My concerns must have shown on face because Maximilian reassured me with "Do not worry yourself over this matter; I and the darcsens have kept this secret for 15 years now." _They are only my second greatest secret after all_.

My curiosity burned furiously, and I blurted out "What's your first?" He looked at me oddly for a moment and then simply said "you are, your status as a true valkyria of legends." _The darcsens are flesh and blood, simple to some grim reality, the valkyria have been gone for 18 centuries, now returned at last_.

I can't understand the way he talks about the valkyria, as if we are all mighty hero's who can just swoop in and save the day. It conflicts far too much with my own experiences as a valkyria. I decide to turn the conversation back to the darcsens, much more comfortable topic, I have always thought of them as companions in misery, being burdened with 2000 year old legends as much as I have.

Realization hits me I ask about the last reports I had seen from Gregor "Wait, so what's your position on the Darcsen concentration camps?" His answer was a blink and "a mistake" _a disaster, I found out about those camps the same time you did, after his death_. He continued "As a senior imperial commander, he was supposed to be watching me, consequently I am not allowed to watch him as closely as I would have preferred." _He told me he was collaborating with the defecting Gallian nobles, I should have asked what exactly he was collaborating on_.

Satisfied with that response I ask about other subjects "So why the Darcsens? Surely another group could have provided what you needed? The southerners would be more acceptable."

A short pause as if he was trying to figure out a proper way to put things even though my ability will allow me to understand him regardless of what he says. He spoke in a logical manner "At the time the south wasn't subdued yet, besides they have their own saviors. While the Darcsen situation in the empire has always varied from poor to horrific, their oppressed status and lack of options means that they will both rally around a benefactor and diligently protect him." _I have yet to be betrayed by a darcsen employee of Zabot. _

He continued it seemed as if he had been waiting a long time to explain this "Equally important their technical culture combined with poor status means that they have repeatedly produced superior products at lower prices. Thus allowing me to break into well established markets, and take on old monopolies." _Though it does bother me sometimes how easy it is to do so_.

He finished with "And lastly discrimination against Darcsens is the last major universal prejudice on Europa, it's defeat will herald the dawn of a new more constructive age." _And most importantly I like being a messiah, the intoxication of saving people is far sweeter than primitive bloodlust_.

Such a base reason! My outrage and disgust is however immediately mitigated by what I am being outraged about. If Maximilian enjoys helping people, who am I to deny him that? After all its not like I have repaid him for saving me from the Valkyria research project. I mentally cringe at that, recalling the times I cried out for a savior, not caring about who, how, or why, but just to be saved.

And that was when I still had hope, after a while I accepted my fate to be test subject forever bathed in that horrible/life saving blue light. Realization hits me like Alicia's lance, the darcsens and myself, we could have chosen to reject Maximilian's aid, to make our own way in an apathetic world, to die alone.

Instead we chose to accept the proffered hand, to live on. Through later we may regret accepting Maximilian's help at least we be alive, there is neither regret nor respite in death.

My spiritual realizations finished I stare at Maximilian who is now dressed in his usual fashion and holding a stack of papers, he states "Come on Selvaria, we've kept Jaeger waiting long enough." _If you accept my path and judge me righteous then follow me_.

I leaped to my feet and focused my resolve into my stare and my voice when I declared "You are the one I have chosen to follow to the ends of the world and beyond, I am more determined than ever to continue that course!" That brought a half smile to his face, an image so rare I could count the number of times I've seen it on one hand.

I fell into step behind him as I usually did, only to squeak in shock as he pushed my lower back until walking by his side. I threw a dirty look at him, and while his face remained composed and calm, I could swear I heard a chuckling echo in my head.

I made my first blunder when I asked "how do you- what's your secret?" I was about to blurt out about Maximilian's Darcsen usage when I remember that we were not alone in the hallways. Fortunately he managed to cover up my mistake and provide the information I was seeking.

He responded in a jovial tone as if discussing the weather instead of ruining secrets "hmm, while I prefer your hair straight as it is, you could use hair curlers." _That combined with hair dye and colored contact lens is enough to fool anyone_.

I tried to keep up with the story he was crafting so I asked "well how does hygiene affect it?" he answered surprisingly quick since he can't read my mind "Somewhat overrated, dirty hair does not help curling._" A through washing after playing with motor oil and not living in filth does wonders for the so called darcsen stench_.

That understanding rendered me silent for the rest of the trip. When we finally arrived in the basement strategic command center, Jaeger was there waiting for us poring over the latest enemy movement reports. When he looked up and saw us a wolfish grin formed on his face and he slyly asked "So I can take it that you two have been enjoying yourselves for the last 2 hours?"

I was out for 2 hours! Then I realized what Jaeger was implying and I felt my face becoming as red as a tomato. Maximilian interceded with "if you call paper work enjoyable" _alas nothing truly enjoyable happened_. He handed the white papers he had taken with him to Jaeger.

We shifted positions, Maximilian and I started going over the movement reports while Jaeger went to side to review the white paper. In the interests of saving time I asked "Jaeger did anything important happen?"

To which he responded once again with that predatory smirk "you mean besides the long awaited consummation of your not quite secret relationship?" my face was still red from his previous comments so I instead decided to chuck a division maker at him. Poor aerodynamics meant that the supersonic projectile missed, embedding itself into the wall behind him.

I asked again trying to control the situation "seriously what has happened?" To which he responded with a scowl and said "The Gallians are moving even slower than expected, at this rate it will take another 3 days for them to gather their entire force. As usual the militia units are placed in the front and the army units in the rear."

Maximilian followed up with "not to worry, I have a plan to provoke the higher authorities into ordering an attack, I ask for both your participation" _this should be fun_. Jaeger and I both respond in the affirmative.

A half an hour later, Jaeger finished the white paper with a small mirthful shake of his head and a grin but I also saw a hint of sadness. He said "As expected of Maximilian, this plan looks like it will definitely turn Fhirald into a modern industrialized country. It is far superior to anything the federation gave us, I especially like the focus on public works, as opposed to walled enclosures."

Maximilian must have caught the hint of unease as well since he replied "I detect a 'but' implied, recall we are blood brothers now, feel free to tell me anything." _Don't tell me that all that work still hasn't earned your loyalty yet_.

Jaeger looked up sharply and said "yes brothers… then brother, I worry about turning Fhirald into sedentary society, about losing the nomad heritage that was the core of our identity." Maximilian responded "is that all? Then the answer is simple, don't give up your nomadic lifestyle. I see no reason why students cannot ride and read at the same time, I have even heard that a Fhiraldian could sleep in the saddle."

I was so used to hearing Maximilian's undercurrent, that the lack through me off guard for an instance. I pondered the lack, until I realized that it was simply because there was no alternative meaning behind that statement, despite his tone, he thought the question was genuinely worth answering.

He continued with "While certain things can't be made mobile, hospitals and factories, perhaps you should consider them like the way posts of the old empire, through instead of instead of changing tired horses you'd stop to get a health checkup." _Yeah admittedly not the best solution, but modernization always tends to trample tradition._

Jaeger simply walked up to Maximilian and gave him a bear hug, muttering phrases "You truly are worthy of being called a blood brother to Fhirald. The fact that you have considered this by yourself means that we can rely upon you to help us find a way into the future."

Due to the angle from my position I had a clear view of Maximilian's face and the grimace he was trying to hold in, he managed to get out in a reasonable tone of voice "Please respect my culture in that grown men do not hug." _Must resist urge to stab, remember Jaeger is not trying to kill you_.

After a long moment Jaeger final pulled back, with his trademark happy go lucky grin and a not quite sincere apologize for his offensive to imperial sensibilities behavior. Maximilian took another moment to compose himself and then we went back to the task of trying to figure out how long it would take for the Gallian assault to wear out so we could push outwards.

Jaeger was not silent for long, asking "By the way brother, what are you planning to do with all those artillery pieces behind the citadel, given that they are all towed it would be difficult to get them into battle later on."

I responded first to spare the new found camaraderie between the two of them "Jaeger please do not get into the habit of calling Maximilian your brother, lest it weaken his image among the conservative factions of the empire." To which Jaeger replied "I wouldn't dream of it, sister."

Right I am bonded to Maximilian now, so through him to Jeager, at least according to Fhirald traditions. I made an exasperated sound and looked over to Maximilian who shrugged, and had a pointed it can't be helped look. I waited for a response to the question, since at their position, the artillery pieces, assuming they were the standard 76mm guns, barely have the range to reach the outmost of our defensive positions.

Though after some more thought, that may be all that is required. Watch the enemy infantry get hopelessly entangled in our defenses, then call in an artillery strike on our own positions. Our armored PIEs will survive while the enemy gets shredded. It is a highly workable plan, if brutal and lacking in military finesse: simple attrition warfare.

Maximilian finally answered "They will remain where are now and engage in fire support for the defense and predictive fire when the Gallians do break. Those are the latest 122mm guns similar to the one on your tank Jaeger, with base bleed rounds their maximum range is about 26kms. They are not currently attached to any of your armored divisions so the placement marker is wrong, there are about a 1000 guns positioned behind this citadel. Current ammo count is enough for barrel replacement at 1500 rounds."

I can't say who was more shocked at those capabilities, me or Jaeger, though I did recover first possibly because I was more aware of standard imperial doctrine. I stated somewhat robotically as I was taught "Doctrine currently states that massed fire is a thing of the past, tanks and assault guns will provide on fire artillery support by traveling with the infantry. How did you get so a large number of advanced artillery units on such a short notice?"

Maximilian rather bluntly responded "I backed the wrong horse." _Gregor picked the right one_. I waited for him to continue "During the military reorganization, the lessons of EW1 from the western front were being analyzed. I was one of those who believed that static set piece battles would continue into the future, so I invested accordingly into artillery and fortifications." _Though right now I won't say that I regret my choice_.

Maximilian inclined his head towards Jaeger and continued "More experience in fighting on the southern front with much better tanks, gave rise to the current imperial doctrine that focuses primary on tanks." Then he faced me and stated "This is the doctrine that you were taught at the imperial military academy."

Then Jaeger had found his voice and asked "how is it that your guns can reach 26km when the latest federation pieces I was working with could only do 10kms?" I knew so I answered "Federation guns have a much lower muzzle velocity than imperial ones, since ours usually have to do double duty as anti tank guns."

I switched my gaze over to Maximilian who nodded his approval at my explanation. Emboldened by the praise I ask something that has been brothering me for some time "What are the status of our armored forces?"

Maximilian hesitated for a moment and replied "Severely depleted, we have a total of 200 tanks most of the light and medium variety. Replacements have not been forthcoming because the federation front has been deemed a higher priority." _Damn __Schneizel what does he need more tanks for; his army is already stalled by logistics requirements_.

Schneizel's interference is just something we will have to work around, 200 tanks is a bit low to drive through an army more than 100,000 strong. Then I realized another problem "The gates on the citadel are large, but tanks can only go through them in single file, it will be difficult to do anything with them except reinforce in piecemeal. And if Alicia does pick up her lance, it will be a turkey shoot."

I remembered that not everyone is up to speed when Jaeger asked "Alicia isn't she the girl that destroyed the Batomys at the battle of Naggiar? Wasn't that a lucky shot?" Confused, we both turn to Maximilian who with complete calm said "That's what my official story is, and that's what the two of you will tell anyone who asks you." _I can't report to the empire that I lost the Batomys on my own personal quest for the Valkof, and that Naggiar was lost because our Valkyria is weaker than the Gallian one._

Maximilian went over to his desk unlocked it and pulled out a roll of film and preceded to set up a projector "Jaeger what you are about to see is not to be mentioned with anyone outside this room, the only reason I am showing you this is because I trust you." _And the fact that no one would believe you over me, and that the evidence will be destroyed before it is ever used against me_.

The film was in black and white, but it had sound which was remarkably clear despite the fact that I was some distance away from it, possibly the recording device was hooked up to the tank radio. The film itself encapsulated the entirety of my failed gambit to force the Gallians to surrender to the greatest myth they possess. Watching the Fight against Alicia again from another perspective was interesting, but unfortunately it did not reveal some great weakness for me to exploit.

Jaeger is apparently a very critical judge as his response was "Very impressive special effects I can see why you don't want other people to know how quickly you will monopolize the movie industry."

Maximilian was silent for a moment before responding "I can understand your reluctance to admit the Valkyria are real and on the empire's side, kind of a perverse fulfillment of standard imperial propaganda. But what about crushed door knob and the division marker embedded in the wall behind you?"

Jaeger responded "magic tricks, you're a master showman, you could have replaced the doorknob with a crushed one in order to boost faith in Selvaria's abilities. The supersonic crack could be some hidden speaker you play whenever the situation matches."

Maximilian raised an eyebrow and replied "Well that was certainly well thought out" _I should make you the head of my magic shows_. he paused for a moment before saying "Fine then, test it out yourself, shoot at Selvaria and she will block your shot with her sword." _That is alright with you?_

I nod my acceptance, I had asked Maximilian to do this when I first discovered my powers. I close my eyes embracing my powers fully and consciously, my body should be sheathed by blue flames at this point. I open my eyes, which are ablaze with my power, in this form my eyesight far keener than normal, telescopic in range and microscopic in detail but this is not what I use to detect the shots.

Another awareness forms inside me, the closest technological equivalent would be radar. It is 360 degrees and with it I can sense where projectiles are coming from and how fast they are mobbing. Another perk it gives me is that I can sense the chemical energy storied in objects, people stand out against the background, but mines and explosives burn like a torch to this sense.

Jaeger fires once the bullet is aimed to the right of my head. Feeling somewhat showy after Jaeger doubted my abilities, I decide to do something new, but that I felt I could have done for a while. I catch the bullet between my index and my middle finger.

A chair scrapes as Maximilian jumps to his feet, but my eyes are focused solely on Jaeger who in disbelief empties the magazine at me, no doubt thinking I am some kind of inhuman monster. Funny I felt that way about myself for the longest time, Maximilian seems to be the only one who feels differently.

The shots are un aimed and scattered, but still within my abilities to catch all of them, piling up the bullets till all of the spaces between my fingers on my right hand are fill with lead. Jaeger falls back into his seat in disbelief and awe, I casually flick one of the bullets back at him so that it grazes his hair. My accuracy is much improved in this mode.

Maximilian breaks the silence "Jaeger, I hope that was enough first hand proof for you." _Selvaria, damn that was impressive_. Jaeger looks grim when he responses "Then this war is lost, our armies will disappear in Valkyrian light."

Maximilian actually gave a short harsh laugh at that "Jaeger I have spent the last two weeks thinking up countermeasures, but most importantly power must be used before it matters. If the Gallians could use their Valkyria whenever they wanted, they could have won right after Naggiar." _They can't for the same reasons I can't, no position to deal with the political backlash of having an ancient goddess reappear on this world_.

Jaeger bounced back then "In that case I have a good trick for winning this war within the week. Why not deploy the tanks now and hide them till the Gallians tire? Naggiar had huge ditches in which tanks could hide, just cover them with dirt afterwards."

My direct experience at Naggiar lead me to respond "digging those ditches requires either a lots of time and effort, or lots of explosives which are hard to disguise." Maximilian cut in sounding almost eager "not if you hide the blasting with an artillery barrage. I need to range find all those artillery pieces anyway, and there's the added bonus keeping the Gallians awake during the night barrage. I can start tonight, Jaeger will you lead the counter attack."

Jaeger was also clearly excited but cautioned "Will our troops be alright working during the night and fighting during the day?" I answered, standard imperial doctrine "Troops are rotated during sustained battles like this, I imagine in 8 hour blocks, it also really helps that we have such a large fortress to put those tired troops behind. While it means our defending troops will be even more outnumbered at the outset of the battle, I'll take 20,000 fresh and well rested troops against 100,000 exhausted and shell shocked men."

Maximilian stood and asked "are we in agreement then?" _well done_. At Jaeger and my nods he continued "So in summery the current plan is to start an artillery barrage tonight which will cover up the construction of tank ditches that Jaegers tanks will hide in. Once he Judges the Gallians will break with a surprise charge, his units will rush forward and cut off the Gallian retreat. Selvaria will simultaneously launch a break out with the infantry reserves and envelope the Gallian forces. Get some dinner and met back here at 9pm we have a meeting with Gallian royalty."

Jaeger grinned and asked "Gallian royalty eh? Should we dress any differently? Do you need me to act like a foreign barbarian that threatens Gallian's national integrity and racial purity, brother?" Maximilian just shook his head and said "Your standard dress is fine, partly civil and party wild, the domesticated monster. Don't say anything unless I prompt you though"

At this Jaeger pretended to be offended with one hand over his heart and with mock hurt said "You afraid I will spill imperial secrets of dominion?" To which Maximilian responded "No, I am afraid you'll say someone to influence a young princesses mind." _Her mind is my to influence_.

Before Jaeger could protest his innocence Maximilian countered "For example should I be paying you to service the service women of the imperial army?" At this Jaeger held up his hands in defeat but stated "Selvaria is still more popular than me, did you know her pictures sell for hundreds of dollars, fully clothed."

I suppose if I was a weaker woman the amount of blood that has flowed to my cheeks would have made me swoon. As it was, I merely felt the desperate need to dig myself a hold and hide, preferably with Jaegers corpse. Maximilian attempted to defended me with "I am aware and I have personally confiscated all the available photos and had them destroyed to preserve the image of the imperial army." _All those photos are in my desk, I especially like the nyan cat ears registration photo_.

It is fortunate that my blood stays there for a while, else I be forced to explain why I am burning up at Maximilian's seemly innocuous and entirely proper statement.

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Authors Technical notes:

Sun-Tzu quote analysis in the context of this chapter: long wars happen because idiots blunder into them. Maximilian's artillery strategy may have worked but when it finishes, he'll have to restock all those barrels and rounds which will cost a lot. Since the Gallian military seems to rely on human waves with its endlessly expanding militia conscription tactics, check out the last couple of Elliot reports, means that even if he does kill them all, he'll be left with a country with a vastly depleted population.

The imperial doctrine here is mainly soviet. Originally they thought that fire support could be delivered by assault guns and aircraft, it didn't work out and they when back to their red god of war, massed artillery.

A soviet 122mm had 20km range. While base bleed rounds are fairly modern concept, the technology has been around for a while. Same principle as tracer rounds, a charge burns at the rear of the round not to push it like a rocket, but to smooth the airflow around it and reduce drag. Range is extended by 30% hence the 26km.

The federation artillery is based on the American 105mm with 10km range.

Selvaria's extra valkyria powers were added both to explain things and for story purposes. The phased radar in her head explains how she can detect a tank round and defect it. The whole undercurrent thing explains why the Valkyria were not murdered in their sleep during the two centuries that they ruled. Alicia will have all these powers.

Ragnaid I assumed was a regeneration aid and not just painkillers and disincentives. This is based on the Valkyria rapid healing abilities which I assume is tied to ragnite usage.

Maximilian suffers from a severe case of enlightened self interest. That aside his helping the Darcsens came from the last few cut scenes when he seemed perfectly fine with having a darcsen as a bride, I doubt canon Maximilian cares about anything except whether it helps him and seems perfectly capable of taking huge risks to ensure a payoff.

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Questions for Reviewers:

Storyline? Good? Bad? Interesting?

Writing? Do you enjoy the SAT words I liberally sprinkle everywhere?

Notes? Do you guys care strongly one way or the other?

Tikigod784 brought up an interesting question: should Kallen be a Valkyria? Could be interesting for the come power triangle between Maximilian, Lelouch, and Schneizel.

So vote on that, and please leave me a review, a few short words of encouragement is enough.

If I get 5 for this chapter, I have it up by the end of next weekend. Otherwise…


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